Kindle

I am on Kindle. My blog, after almost two years and a couple of hundred entries, has hit the big time. I will, once again, be paid for writing, and let me tell you, it's been a long while.

Now admittedly I have only one person subscribing via Kindle. This erudite reader pays $1.99 a month, of which 30 percent is deposited directly into my bank account. That's 60 cent, folks, a not laughable sum. This time next year I will be able to spend my blog money on a Reuben at Jason's down the street. I am immensely grateful and plan to further spread my fame across the screens of Borders' Sony Reader and Barnes & Nobles' Nook.

The Kindle people are no fool. In order to read my own blog, I'd have to subscribe too, which I am not going to do. That would be unethical. At breakfast this morning a friend suggested I go to the homes of everyone I know and, claiming I need to check my email on their computers, secretly subscribe them. I'm sneaky. I could probably pull it off but that may be unethical as well, though not as much as self-subscription.

On a serious note, I am all in favor of digital books; anything that allows people to read more is a boon, and if it is at the cost of ink and paper, so be it. Audio books have been Ariond for quite some time; writers now use computers and word processing programs without a second thought and it's only fair that readers be allowed to do the same.

I bought my Kindle used, on eBay for about $120. The original owner had already upgraded it with a bigger chip. It's a first generation, which means the keyboard is split down the middle, but that's of no concern. I don't really plan to write with it. It came with the complete Oxford English Dictionary and the works of Shakespeare. Since I'm a cheapskate, I immediately downloaded all the free stuff I could find--there a lot of it on the net--so here's a hint: To get all the free books Amazon currently carries for Kindles, go to the Kindle store and in the 'search for'
line, type in $0.00 and hit 'enter.' All the free books will come up.

And if you have a mind to subscribe to a really good blog (this one), enter Wasted Miracles. A buck nine-nine! Is this a great country or what?