A brief break from writing to write about writing

I'm well over halfway done with my NaNoWriMo novel and I'm feeling pretty "eh" about it; to the point where I know that it's going to be a mess when I get back in to the editing process and rewrite the intro to match all the inane plot twists I have since written.

But I'm having fun and if I'm not crazy-busy, I'm usually cranking out two to three thousand words a day. By that figuring, I'll be wrapping up shortly after the holiday this weekend, unless by some miracle, I get inspired while I'm up in Sebastapol with my girl. Which I suppose is quite possible.

Also, in news about writing, I heard a piece on the radio today where Jeff Bezos was talking about the Amazon Kindle, their eBook reader and interestingly enough, Amazon's first tangible product.

Many of you know that I have a severe book addiction and I love reading and writing all sorts of media: comic books, magazines, newspapers, blogs, Sedaris, etc. I love all of it. So when I heard Time Magazine's Man of the Year 1999 Jeff Bezos talk about this "revolutionary" new product I was intrigued. His interview was fascinating and the NPR correspondant had some great questions regarding how you can make reading an eletronic device like reading a book.

While Bezos talked about the eInk they use and the way the machine works, is linked to the Amazon book store (like iTunes, the 90,000 eBooks they have are all $9.99) wirelessly, I started to get excited. When Bezos said "people love to sit down in the morning and read the paper," saying they will have newspapers available on the Kindle I got really excited.

This seemed like a gadget I could really get into and could possibly be my new best friend, even at the steep $400 price tag. As long as they include RSS, for easy, free acesss to blogs and such, I would preorder in a second.

But alas, this is a tragic story- the four honge is only the beginning of the priace you would have to pay. Newspaper and magazine subscriptions* would cost about $15 a month, and EACH RSS BLOG SUBSCRIPTION would cost $2, instead of the ZERO DOLLARS I pay to read them on NetNewsWire at home or abroad on my laptop.

Also, when I finally got online and took a look at it, the thing looks kind of lame. Not horrible, not without tought and ergonomic intelligence- just bleh. It looks more like a gadget from twenty years ago, a handheld Apple IIe, than something that is supposed to be an iPod for books.

Not only that, but the competitor, Sony's Reader may look better, but is more stupid and less intuitive and has less features expandibility.

Anyhow, that's where my nerd is at- someone recommend something super cool and nerdy for me to pine over this holiday season. Something useful, yet expandable. Come on now, I know there is something I don't know about.




*e-Ink doesn't support color YET, so how can you do magazines?