As a book hound myself, I was hoping this day would never come.  But it has.

It’s called the Kindle. Amazon.com’s moderately priced “Revolutionary Wireless Reading Device” is the size of a paperback and uses EVDO technology.  That means it picks up a signal like a cell phone does.  No need to search for hotspots to read Stephen King or Nathaniel Hawthorne or J.K. Rowling.

No need to use a receipt for a bookmark.  No need for a bookmark at all.  It just picks up where you left off.

Feel like enlarging the text?  Yeah, it can be done.

Access the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, Time Magazine and dozens of others, over 250 blogs, and Wikipedia (shudder) all in this handy little device.

Come across a word you don’t know while you are reading Anna Karenina?  Not a problem.  You can look up the definition.  Just push a few buttons.

Buy a book and it’s delivered to your Kindle in less than a minute!  And it’s not backlit so you can read it in the SUN.  How crazy is that?

Did I mention that it’s wireless?

And you can read for days without recharging the little bugger.  No need to lug around piles of books.  I must admit I’m a little impressed.  And apparently, I’m not alone.  The wireless reading device (that sounds so Orwellian) sold out “due to heavy customer demand” almost immediately upon its release.

Ah, so we’ve gone from reading by candlelight to reading by Kindle-light.

I surrender.