Lucy Ann's Kindle 2

When I found out Lucy Ann commutes to work on the train every day and also loves to read, I told her she MUST come see my Kindle because it is perfect for people like her. My sales pitch worked -- she was hooked -- and a week later she was back to show me HER Kindle, which is the newest model (and therefore innately cooler than mine). Yep, it was awesome to touch it. I still love my Kindle but what I really like about the new model is the "text to speech" feature. It's easy to switch from reading the book visually to having the book read to you (in a somewhat computerized voice, but not as horrible as the voice in the grocery store self-checkout line). This would be great for commuters like ME, who resent having to get in the car to drive to work because it means we have to stop reading our book and concentrate on the road.   I tried to get Lucy Ann to look the other way, even distract her with chocolate so that I could "borrow" her Kindle 2 for a few days, but she was having none of it. She's already loving it. I'm so glad that she does, but I must admit a pang of guilt as a librarian, because maybe she won't use the library as much! Still waiting for Amazon to come up with a way of allowing libraries to purchase e-books and then lend to their patrons, but I doubt it'd be a wildly profitable thing for them (and there's also that digital rights management thing) so it'll be a while, if ever, before that is ready for prime time. For more on that subject, I recommend this article from the Christian Science Monitor. http://www.csmonitor.com/2009/0318/p09s01-coop.html