kindle?

I've been lusting after a Kindle for a while, but more in theory than in anything else. Especially when I'm getting ready to head home for Thanksgiving with a huge stack of books in tow, the Kindle is really appealing--all those books and more in one lightweight device! Of course, the cost is prohibitive (not just the initial $350 smackeroos, but new books cost $9.99--still cheaper than a bookstore, but I get my books for free from the library. Of course I could just stock up on the complete works of Jane Austen and Mark Twain, as classics are fifty cents a pop).

Then I wondered--does the Kindle even have the books I want?

Let's see, using all the books on my library hold list!

-Toni Morrison's A Mercy--Yup! And Morrison's other works range from $2.50 to $7.95.

-Marilynne Robinson's Home--Yup!

-Sarah Vowell's The Wordy Shipmates--Yup!

-Stephanie Kallos' Sing Them Home--Nope.

-Brad Meltzer's The Book of Lies--Yup. (No surprise there--my fricking supermarket sells this book. Which makes me not want to read it, but that's another blog entry.)

-Carmen Laforet's Nada--Nope.

-Josh Bazell's Beat the Reaper--Nope.

-Charlie Huston's The Mystic Arts of Erasing All Signs of Death--No, but they have a bunch of other books by him.

-Roberto Bolano's 2666--No, which is surprising, since this book is getting lots of buzz.

-Jeffery Deaver's The Bodies Left Behind--Yup.

-Bridget Asher's My Husband's Sweethearts--Yup. (And they even have a couple of books written under Asher's real name, Julianna Baggott.)

-Rachel Kushner's Telex from Cuba--Yup.

-Kirsten Menger-Anderson's Doctor Olaf van Schuler's Brain--Nope.

-A.B. Yehoshua's Friendly Fire--Nope.

-Jonathan Carroll's The Ghost in Love--Yup.

-Peter Manseau's Songs for the Butcher's Daughter--Yup.

-Tamar Yellin's Tales of the Ten Lost Tribes--Nope.

-Carrie Fisher's Wishful Drinking--No, but it's not being published till December 2nd.

They also have every Charlaine Harris book, like, ever, which is cool b/c I've been thinking of reading one of her other mystery series.

I think that's 9/18 . . . so based on this small sample size, there's a 50% chance any given book I want to read is available on the Kindle. Of course, the nice thing about getting books from a library is that if they suck, I haven't paid for them, and ten bucks a pop would add up. But on the other hand, it'd be sweet to have all the books I want to read in one small place, instead of in random piles around my apartment. Oh Kindle, why hasn't your price gone down for the holidays??