<p style="text-align: center;"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-138" title="f61a162bf8a4315f_landing" src="http://ionlyweardresses.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/f61a162bf8a4315f_landing.jpg" alt="" width="540" height="434" /></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><strong>"Oh!  If only I had an Amazon Kindle!"</strong></p>
SOURCE:  From <a href="http://www.life.com/">Life Magazine Online</a>

<em>The book will be killed not directly by new technology but by the monkey mind it breeds. The issue is concentration, not royalties.</em>

<em>Writing opens up the otherwise unusual prospect of being violently disliked by strangers &amp; training oneself not to mind.</em>

<em>Allain De Botton (seen at </em><a href="http://thesecondpass.com/"><em>The Second Pass</em></a><em>)</em>

The Boy got me the Amazon Kindle for Christmas and here are three facts about it.  First, I named mine Maximilian Charles, or Maxim for short.  Second, it was a complete surprise because it came inside a box with another gift and I thought it was a DVD player (a shared gift for our cave).  And third, I am obsessed with it and haven't loved anything more - except the Boy who got it for me.

Oh, here's a quick fourth - there needs to be a<strong> Kindle Etiquette 101 </strong>or I might lose my marbles.

<strong>1.  If you see me with my Kindle, I don't want to hear about how it is killing "the book."</strong> I am a Kindle fan.   I don't think the Kindle is responsible for monkey mind and I don't think it will kill "the book." Like any technology, the Kindle supplements my reading, which is something I enjoy doing and if at any given moment, I can stuff more words into my head, I will take it.  (Yes M.I.T., I am volunteering for your Book I.V. as a test subject).   Like any great technology, it supplements the already existing thing/behavior/action and can never fully replace it.  For example, I haven't gotten rid of my t.v. because Hulu exists or stopped carrying money because I have a debit card.

<strong>2.  Please don't tell me that you think laptops and tablets will replace the Kindle so you don't see the use of it. </strong>This is one of the first annoying comments made about my Kindle (which I hear often) and it makes me wonder, does the person saying it react to my pleasure at the Kindle or is it just that they are a major jerk who can't see my "I don't care" face?  Yes, the Boy will be getting an IPAD which will/might outsell and screw with the Kindle but I like single-use technologies.  I like a single camera/cell phone/laptop and e-reader device.  I don't want my toaster communicating with satellites.  I understand if you do, and hey, I get your love of the IPHONE but when I turn on my Kindle and settle in to read, I feel like the world disappears as I concentrate on the "book" in my hand.  I am glad it isn't back lit.  I am glad I can't access a <a href="http://cuteoverload.com/">blog</a> from it.  So please, don't let me know how you think another technology will surpass this one.  I know, I also completed college-level science classes.

<strong>3.  My Kindle is like a stripper.  Please don't touch. </strong>I am actually not hiding any romance novels on my Kindle.  There's a lot of Cormac McCarthy going on and a lot of stuff about Richard Nixon but <em>please don't touch my Kindle. </em>I know, I know.  It is a beautiful, lightweight machine that screams, touch me.  The gorgeous Cole Haan cover that the Boy got me, also screams touch me.  But don't do it.  I don't want you to touch it.  Why?

First, as my parents heard so much back in the day, I don't play well with others.  I don't like people touching my toys plain and simple.  Others do and if they volunteer it, great. Touch it.  But if they don't volunteer, understand that they probably don't want your germy mitts on it.

Second, even as I blog about what I wear and where I eat, I demand some privacy with my Kindle.  I would NEVER paw through someone's IPHONE, go through their laptop after being invited into their home, or sift through their IPOD (to expose that they did indeed, download Party in the U.S.A.)  Remember what Alfred Hitchcock said about women's <a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=yGenjmTSyJ8C&amp;pg=PA82&amp;lpg=PA82&amp;dq=Hitchcock+Women's+Purses&amp;source=bl&amp;ots=cmplmq4jl9&amp;sig=XCaWI7SCLFMzpnyXbTQfYea6rp8&amp;hl=en&amp;ei=rGp8S-6YKpSKNN3t7KwF&amp;sa=X&amp;oi=book_result&amp;ct=result&amp;resnum=1&amp;ved=0CAkQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&amp;q=Hitchcock%20Women's%20Purses&amp;f=false">purses</a>?  You don't?  I don't care, don't touch my Kindle.

<strong>4.  Don't interrupt me when I am reading. </strong>I get it.  It's shiny.  It's new.  You want to know all about it.  But you know what?  If you are remotely considering it, there's CNET and Amazon.  There are better windows of opportunity to ask me questions:  there's that split second when I go up to get my delicious iced coffee.  There's that moment when I pack up to leave.  There's a million moments that are better than this one:  when I am getting to the part about monkey prostitution in <em>Super Freakanomics</em> or when I read this line in <em>No Country for Old Men:</em>

<em>"Every moment in your life is a turning and every one a choosing. Somewhere you made a choice. All followed to this. The accounting is scrupulous. The shape is drawn. No line can be erased. I had no belief in your ability to move a coin to your bidding. How could you? A person's path through the world seldom changes and even more seldom will it change abruptly. And the shape of your path was visible from the beginning."</em>

At that moment, I don't care whether you were "interested in buying a Kindle," or "thought it was bigger," or "had never seen one in person" or "wanted to know how much it cost?"  If and only if you are Christian Bale, (and not a look alike because that doesn't get you off the hook either), should you interrupt my reading and ask me about my Kindle.