Consumer Escapes - The Kindle

A few years ago I was roundly chastised for buying my wife a Mother's Day present that plugged in. It was an appliance of some sort that I thought was cool, and it was received quite "coolly." OK so it wasn't jewelry. Since then I've worked hard to avoid gifts that have a plug. Until this year when I decided to get my wife a Kindle. I figured it only plugs in every few weeks, the rest of the time it's a sleek, sexy portable device with the promise of hundreds of books at her fingertips.

My daughter and I encouraged my wife to open her present on Friday evening. We knew she'd be consumed with other responsibilities on the Sunday of Mother's Day. She's been "plugged into" her Kindle since. Not simply hooked, she loves the device and she's barely even explored the capabilities. (Guess that's because she read a whole book already.) She's even picking out Kindle accessories from Amazon.com. Try doing that with a waffle iron.

My family also purchased a Kindle for my Mom for Mother's Day. I don't know if she's had the same immediate Kindle love. My Mom loves to escape with a good book, so I hope she gets the same pleasure out of the Kindle.

In chronicling these two new additions to the Kindle family I realized that my mother and wife are my two best sources for new books to read; whether it's a great find at the library, the new bestseller from Costco or an old classic. That's going to change greatly. But Father's Day is only 41 days away (not that I'm counting or anything) and I have no problem with gifts that plug in.