'The worth of a book...'

"How many a man has dated a new era in his life from the reading of a book." ~ Henry David Thoreau

Ahhh. Summer days are stretching their last legs, and that summer reading pile of yours likely is a bit smaller is stature.

Sigh. I'm in 'like' with Kindle.

I have an Amazon Kindle. I love it.

Of course, I love tangible new (and old) books — holding them, smelling their fresh pages and ink, gliding through the aisles as I search for what to pick up next — more, but the Kindle is a lovely addition to my literary collection. Anyway, I'll leave any reviews on Kindle to a future discussion.

Sony is expected to announce a new e-reader that will be $100 cheaper than the Kindle. Considering Amazon.com dropped its price on the smaller product, Kindle 2, from $359 to $299, putting the new Sony item at $199, well, that's quite a bit of bank!

One of the current Sony Readers

Yes, perhaps, still too much to pay for a reading platform, but it could give Amazon some healthy competition (finally!), especially after that whole book-deletion-lawsuit situation.

I know not everyone is comfortable — or even interested — in this digital-reading phenomenon, and I don't blame them, but a little Sony-Amazon battle would be pretty interesting on the tech front, whether  you care for e-readers or not. Kind of like if Google and Apple threw down and what the declared victor's win would mean for the industry. We would all buy tickets to THAT fight.

But how will it measure up? Will it be worth it? Is there a future in e-readers? The digital plot thickens. Let's see what Sony's next entrant offers. :)

It's your birthday, Mr. President

I wouldn't even know how to cut
this thing, but it looks yummy!

August 4 is President Barack Obama's birthday.

I know, he didn't even invite us to the party, but that doesn't mean we can't send a belated gift and hope for some cake.

So, what kind of birthday gift do you get for the person who runs your country?


I'll assume Michelle's got his clothes picks covered. And yes, I know she's got more going than just her fabulous attire choices — but, well, her attire choices are fabulous, so whatever.

I'm going to go ahead and picture her handing him a gift bag containing new jeans for his next baseball-throwing adventure. You can picture her gift-wrapping a riveting nonfiction work on tax litigation. Everyone wins.

'Hilarious! Oh, wait, were you
pointing at me, Mr. President?'

Taking note of the random, quirky gifts (I mean, really??) presented to past presidents, I have to wonder, what exactly goes into buying for the master chief these days?

I can almost hear the random thought trains: "Gift wrap? Check. Birthday card? Check. Giant moldy cheese ball with sticker of Obama on side? Check and check. I think we're done here; he's going to love it!"

What would you get him?

It seems he's had to dismiss quite a few people; perhaps he'd like a "You're Fired" T-shirt? Maybe. Or is that too weird?

You know you want one, Barry...

... Or how about a bobblehead of his himself? I bet he doesn't have one of those for his desk in the Oval Office.

I wonder what he'd have his aides get me for my birthday? I already have an iPhone, after all. :)

P.S. Oh, and no one ask me about his birth certificate. Seriously.