I love my Kindle - Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos

Finally Amazon allows Kindle to ship to Canada

Ruk tweeted me that he had ordered his Kindle. ruk Kindle ordered.

At first I thought he was bonkers until I checked my Tweets a little further down.

CBCNews Amazon Kindle coming to Canada http://bit.ly/shnuN

That’s what I get for working on Lady Gaga stories – I am 12 minutes behind CBC and 10 behind Peter Rukavina.  Somebody has to work around here and I guess it was me for a bit today.

To get one or not is the question. I like books. I like to collect them, sometimes in boxes in the basement. This winter I need to build some bookcases because a certain ex-wife took one of my big ones.

Kindle gives you a book for half price on the screen and you download over a cell network or wi-fi or something. All you need is a credit card on file with Amazon.

OK, no choice. I have to order one. Bob Lefsetz has one. He has been bragging it up for months.

Soon Ruk will have one.

The Kindle sells for $259 US plus shipping and estimated import fees of $52.06. Amazon.com is now calculating the GST and brokerage fees ahead of time. If you use USPS that is generally lower. Total $311.06.

“We know that Canadians are passionate about books and reading, and we’re excited to make Kindle available to our customers there,” said Ian Freed, vice-president of Kindle, in a statement. “Kindle enables customers around the world including Canada to think of a book and start reading it in under 60 seconds.”

The Kindle Store has 300,000 book titles, which Amazon says are typically $12 or less.

As well, the Globe and Mail, the National Post and Canwest’s major daily newspapers will join the list of newspapers and magazines available for purchase from the Kindle Store. CBC

The idea people will pay for newspapers on Kindle strikes me as funny since you can get them for free on your cell phone or computer.