Kindle Finds / Kindle Fire

There’s a great new site to find books for your Kindle, named – rather aptly – Kindle Finds. The great thing about this site is that, just like listings and sponsorships at Pixel of Ink, a book needs to have a 4+ star average rating from at least 10 reviews, either on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or Goodreads (that’s all from one of those sites, not a combination of the three), which helps readers know that the books they’re browsing have been screened for quality and popularity. So many more incredible books are now available due to the rapid growth of the eBook and self-publishing, but there’s also an awful lot of dross. I don’t mean that meanly, it’s just a fact – and an inevitable one (and that’s from all publishers, by the way, not just independents).

Now, allow me to say that I’m not simply recommending Kindle Finds because I have one of my own books on the site. That just wouldn’t be right. Then again…it wouldn’t be The End of the World, either.

Also, today is the day Amazon begins shipping its brand new Kindle Fire – in the U.S. at least. I think it’s going to be a while before they distribute to other countries, which is a shame. I really don’t know why they can’t do global rollouts with things like this, especially considering the size of the company.

Anyway, I don’t have one on order. I have a Kindle, of course, and it suits my needs very well. So I don’t need a Kindle Fire. Do I? Um…no, I suppose I don’t need one. But do I want one? Oh, you bet I do. You see, I’m something of a closet gadget freak. Were I a millionaire I would have rooms literally overflowing with gadgets of all kinds, most of which I would only use once, some never at all.

But as well as the gadget freak in me, there’s also the ever present pragmatist who never fails to remind me of the distinction between want and need. Who will eventually win out in the battle over Kindle Fire? Only time will tell. But the truth is I don’t need one. Then again, $200 really isn’t all that much…it’s just ten $20 bills, that’s all. But I don’t need it…but at that price…oh!