I wrote earlier that I was considering getting a Kindle 2. Unfortunately, I’ve had my mind made up for me.

Earlier this weekend I mistakenly drove off from my garage with my Kindle on the back of my Toyota Prius. I had set the Kindle down there when I was unloading my car and apparently forgot to come grab it afterwards.  Later on, I left to go play some poker, not remembering that my Kindle was still perched on the rear end of my car.

My Kindle is now somewhere between Aurora and Rockford, likely on the side of the road somewhere.

I’ve ordered my new Kindle 2 and a leather cover for it (since the new version doesn’t come with a case). It’s scheduled to be delivered on Tuesday.  I suppose I’ll have to live without my Kindle fix for a day or two.

I’m trying to decide whether I want to get the new Kindle 2 to replace my original Kindle.  Don’t get me wrong, I love my Kindle. I use it every day.

But there are a few things that are annoying about it, such as the placement of the Previous/Next buttons, the page turn lag that is sometimes experienced and the overall ugliness of the design. I’ve figured out ways to live with all of those things, of course.  Which is what is causing my dilemma.

The Kindle 2 looks much nicer than the original.  The button placement is better.  The screen now boasts 16 shades of gray, for crisper text and images.  The page turns and other display elements are supposed to be much faster.  The battery life is better.  It’s all around a better device.  But is that enough for me to drop the $359 on it?

I suppose it depends on whether I can sell my original Kindle to recoup part of the cost.  Anyone interested in buying a Kindle 1?

I figured I’d start a little series here on the blog entitled “Why I love my …”

Since I had already written a post regarding why I love my Zune, I figured it was time for me to extoll the virtues of one of the other gadgets that I love, namely my Amazon Kindle.

When I first heard about the Kindle, I was definately intrigued.  I’ve always been interested in the idea of e-book readers, since I read an enormous amount of books.  I can easily go through 15-20 novels a month when I can find the time to go out and buy them.  My appetite for science fiction and fantasy has lead to a, shall we say, large collection of physical books (at last count, somewhere in the 1500-2000 range).

While I’ve always loved the feel of a book in my hand, I wasn’t wedded to the concept.  It’s the content, not the form factor, that I enjoy.  So anything that can reduce the amount of physical books I have to store as well as the amount of natural resources used up to print those books was a good thing in my book (pun intended).

So, the reduction of paper books was my number one reason for buying the Kindle.  There are a few more, however, that I feel are pretty close to the same level of importance.

I love the convenience of being able to purchase a book whenever I want.  The Kindle includes high speed wireless access to the Amazon store.  Amazon calls this Amazon Whispernet.  It’s essentially 3G EVDO access running on the Sprint network.  There’s no monthly fees for access to this network, however, so it’s a great deal.  You simply access the storefront from your Kindle or from another internet connected device, make your purchase, and the new content is downloaded to your Kindle wirelessly in a matter of seconds.

To go along with that, you can subscribe to newspapers, magazines, even blogs on your Kindle.  New content from these subscriptions are downloaded automatically to your Kindle when the content is made available.  These subscriptions are usually less than their physical media counterparts, as well.

As far as cost goes, even though the Kindle is not cheap as an up front investment, if you read as much as I do, you’ll easily make back the money you spent on it through the savings on the content.  Most books are priced significantly lower than their physical counterparts.

The last thing I’ll say is that I love the fact that with my Kindle with me, I have access to all the books I’ve ordered through it.  As I build up my library, I’ll be able to take all my books with me wherever I go.  It’s really nice to be able to keep all that information in one place.