It’s finally out—the first viable e-book solution: Amazon’s Kindle. This article from Newsweek covers all the main points, and gets a bit (too?) philosophical about the implications of this potentially paradigm-shifting device. It’s worth a read, though, even if you think the analysis is over-dramatized.

I’m not a futurologist, nor do I intend to play one on the internet. I will say, though, that I’m excited by Kindle’s potential. The ability to carry an entire library with me wherever I go and to instantly augment it with new books wherever I am—these are the things I dream about.

I largely blame the iPod for conditioning my brain in just this way. It’s an insidious form of consumerism fueled by the promise of instant gratification—a false promise, as always, as the gratification is never complete.

Yet still I’m excited. I can see myself making extensive use of a device like this, to its full potential.