Amazon Kindle- Must Have Christmas Gift for Book Lovers

I love books. All my life, my dream has been to build a huge home library, a place where children and grandchildren will come to borrow a copy of Treasure Island, Jane Eyre or Moby Dick.. I wanted a room with huge leather chairs, an oriental rug, and floor to ceiling bookcases to house my beloved collection. And a fireplace! Have to have a fireplace in a library. Well, economic instability has resulted in no realization of my library dream. That is, until I found out that I could have my library without the tons of books to dust, bookshelves to climb, and without the huge bank balance needed to buy all those books, not to mention the leather chairs and oriental rugs. No, I have a huge library now, and I carry it in my purse!

I bought myself the Amazon Kindle last winter, thinking what a major investment it was on a limited budget, and hoping I would love it as much as I thought I would pre-purchase. I was wrong. I love it MORE. I don't go anywhere without my Kindle. I'm never at a loss for something to do in a doctor's waiting room, stuck in a traffic jam, or spending an evening when nothing is on television.

The Kindle is Amazon's new electronic book reader, but what makes this new bookreader so unique is that it has the ability to wirelessly download your favorite book from anywhere, at a much lower price than the paper version. If you aren't sure of the book you want, just use your Kindle to browse the Kindle store or check out their recommendations based on prior purchases. Don't like what you're reading? No problem. Just flip on the wireless feature, connect, and in a few seconds you can be reading something else. Your favorite magazines and newspapers, such as the Wall Street Journal, can also be delivered wirelessly to your Kindle on a daily basis.

Another big advantage of the Kindle is the ability to use its dictionary while you are reading. Just click on the line the word you need a definition for is located on, and you will instantly get the definitions of all major words on that line. Highlight a section to save for later. Bookmark a page to come back to. Add your own notes as you read. You can do all that on the Kindle, and more. Kindle also has the ability to change the font size as you read. With a touch of a button you can adjust to six different font sizes, from small to extra-extra large--no more need to buy large print books.

The Kindle claims to hold up to 250 books, but it has a slot for an SD card to expand the memory to more than you'd ever fill. If you only leave the wireless feature on when you are planning to download a book or shop the Kindle store, your battery will last, with normal reading, for 5-7 days on average. A charger is included, and it is recommended you just charge it a little every day, instead of waiting until it is very low.

So why is it a good value? A bestseller that goes for $29.99 on average, is $9.99 on the Kindle. Plus you save the gas of running out to the bookstore or paying shipping to get it. No more standing in lines for the newest release. Amazon has a huge collection of books for the Kindle, with more being available every day.

There is a search feature, if you want to know every book (for example) you have the phrase, "covered wagon." Just type it in and you'll get a list of every book on your Kindle where that phrase if found. And if all these features aren't enough, you can also use the experimental basic web feature to check weather, movie listings, or the latest news.

If you are an avid reader, but also a tightwad, like me, you can find many sites with public domain books available for download free, including many classics in literature and poetry. Amazon also features many of the classics for 99 cents.

So when you are trying to decide what to buy that special book lover in your life, who's always had that dream of a huge library but may be driving you crazy with stacks of books all over the house, get them a Kindle. You won't be sorry and they will love you forever for it.