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Kindle With Care
The notion of reading a book on an electronic device has always been problematic: the book is pretty much a perfect medium, and it’s difficult to improve on perfection. There’s portability, resolution, texture, random access, and the satisfying crack as a new hardcover book is opened for the first time. And the eye strain evoked by backlit computer displays and frustratingly tiny smartphone screens can’t even remotely compare to the contrast of ink on paper. Enter Amazon’s Kindle 2, which just became available in Canada last week, and aims to offer a viable alternative to the classic dead-tree format. After spending some time with it over the last few days, we found that e-books still have a ways to go, but—and we can’t believe we’re saying this—we’re totally sold on the concept. Too bad about the dearth of CanLit, though.