I love reading; always have. I remember the joy of checking out books from the library when I was a child: the thrill of finding a book that could transport me to other worlds and situations…and the sorrow when the time eventually came to return “my” book. It was as if I had separation anxiety when it was time to return a title I had really enjoyed. What if I wanted to read it again later? What if I couldn’t remember the title or author? I decided early on that book ownership was key.

With that goal in mind, I would use money given to me on birthdays and Christmas to purchase my own books. Once I had a regular job, I also became a regular book purchaser. Even with periodic culling and gifting of the books I chose not to keep, I still managed to amass quite a personal library over the years. Because of the space required by my books, the advent of eBooks was very attractive to me. Early on I committed to the Peanut Press/eReader platform, and over the years I have managed to purchase 503(!!) of them. I particularly like the idea of a virtual library - no trees cut down to support my voracious habit, and no need for additional shelf space. Like many, I wondered why the savings from dead tree books to eBooks were not steeper, but for the most part I kept my grumbling to myself.

When dedicated eBook readers such as the Sony Reader began to appear, I looked at them with much interest, but I never bit. Part of the reason was that I didn’t want to carry yet another device, but the other reason - in all honesty - was because none of them were compatible with eReader and the library I had already amassed; I simply did not relish the idea of moving to another platform.

It wasn’t until Wayne basically said that he was sending his Amazon Kindle to me, and I was expected to try it and give my impressions, that I ever thought I might bail out of the eReader club. Is the Kindle perfect? Heck no. But I found it to be surprisingly compelling.

This review will include not only my experience with the reader, but also Wayne and Ellen’s. After I cover the hardware, we’ll each take turns discussing this wireless reading device…

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The Energizer “Energi To Go” emergency charger for mobile devices and cellular phones is a gadget falls into the “When I need it, I really need it!” category.

The premise is simple: Load the device with two AA batteries (Energizer recommends their Lithium batteries, but it works with any type of AA), plug in their cable, then attach to your mobile phone or PDA, and voila! The LED lights up, and you’re charging. (The speed and quantity of power charging will depend on the type of AA battery used.)

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