Too Cool for School

In addition to one of our fave wedding gifts, the Nikon D90, we are continuing to move into the tech-savvy subculture with the latest addition to the Hardy family: The Hardy's Kindle (thank you Aunt Mary, who has been tirelessly committed to bringing us into the new world with the digicam and, now the reader).

Looking back on Journalism 101 and all the chitter chat about internet media and case studies of those weird things called "blogs" and the bastardization of news by "online publishing," I can't believe that I, former print magazine writer and editor, own a Kindle.

I love books...the real things. The ones I can look at and smell and flip through and admire on my shelves once their done, like some kind of finished piece of art I can pride on. I love holding a real newspaper and getting inky while manipulating difficult pages into manageable creases. But, I am not about to turn down a device that is thinner than my iphone and stores about as much media as I can cram onto it - especially while we're still so transient, constantly on long- and short-haul flights and carrying our entire lives in no more than four suitcases and two carry-ons (yes, that's the baggage we packed for an entire year of living and traveling abroad).

So, let's be honest, the first thing that catches an avid reader about the Kindle is that, hello, it's soooo cheap to buy books and mags. You'll remember my obsession with YThe New Yorker, my search for the pub and finally locating it in one store in one mall in one province of the UAE. And, you might remember that it was about $10 a pop. Not exactly the best budget line item for newly-married MBA student couple, right? Well, it's $2.99 for a month subscription (weekly) and $3.99 for an individual issue! YES!

I also found a searched-for, but slightly random title, Little Pink House: A True Story of Defiance and Courage (the story of Suzette Kelo and her neighbors in New London, CT in an eminent domain legal battle that went to the Supreme Court). It's half the price of print in the Kindle Store!

So, we leave off for our next US step with our little digital world intact. The D90 is home, the Kindle is loaded up and we are on the road again.

Look out Cleveland, here we come...