The Bottom Line: I highly recommend the Kindle mostly because it is a device that reads like a book and literally allows you to take your home library whereever you go.

I own a Kindle 2 for two reasons. First, it was a "Christmas gift" from my wife--even though I told her I really didn't want one, especially at $359 a pop.

"But you're always buying books," she argued, citing my recent purchases of all twenty of Patrick O'Brian's Jack Aubrey/Stephen Maturin sea sagas. Which (I didn't dare tell her) was exactly why I didn't want another electronic gadget taking away my precious reading time.

My wife ordered the Kindle anyway (wives are like that) and it arrived in time for my birthday, over two months after Christmas. Which brings us to the second reason I own a Kindle: Amazon had run out of the original (which I will call "One") and sent 2 as soon as it was released. Sometimes you just get lucky.

Almost everyone I know who owns a One professes to be in "love" with it. Just like the old Packard automobile, the darn thing costs so much that you would probably feel like an idiot for spending $359 on what is basically a paperback book if you didn't love it. Now that I own one, I must admit that I too am smitten—although "love" applied to an inanimate object is a stretch. Let's just say that I like it a really, really lot.

However, nothing is perfect and Kindle, even 2, has shortcomings that Amazon, in all its wisdom, should be able to correct.

But first, some things you should know about the gadget itself. Although it's the size of a fancy 8 X 5 paperback, Kindle 2 is about 3/8ths of an inch thick and weighs practically nothing. Although it hasn't happened yet, I can envision it slipping between the sofa cushions, so I make a point of returning it to the same spot when I'm through for the evening.

There are eight "getting around" buttons. The power switch takes barely a touch to activate the screen but must be held longer than four seconds to deactivate. A 5-way controller allows you to move the cursor and select an item (including individual word definitions) when pressed. Home displays content and Menu allows you to shop the Kindle Store, turn the wireless on and off, and perform several other functions. Next Page and Previous Page are self-explanatory, whereas Back returns the screen to the previous function (such as Home). A Text Key, which is part of a regular tiny keyboard beneath the screen, allows you to change font sizes.

Kindle 2 comes preloaded with dictionary and user's guide. Books have to be ordered from the Kindle Store. Popular sellers, such as Anita Shreve's Testimony, are just under ten dollars, whereas public domain titles are usually less than a dollar or even free. I downloaded 4 James Joyce Novels for ninety cents and The Bible cost nothing.

One of many amazing aspects of Kindle is the instant ordering feature. After setting up an Amazon account, ordering a book seems to require little more than a couple of "clicks." The default setting places the cursor on the one-click order button when a book's description and order page is accessed. This can prove embarrassing. In these first few weeks I unintentionally ordered two books. I canceled one, but kept the second.

Listed improvements are that 2 is slimmer than One, stores seven times as much content, has sharper images, turns pages faster, and lasts 25% longer between chargings. Amazon claims Kindle "works" anywhere. While it's true you can read content anywhere, you cannot download books without a wireless signal--which means you should load what you want to read before you take that Greenland vacation.

I'm told that the location and smaller size of the page buttons is a much- appreciated improvement. I've found them perfectly situated for effortless, nearly seamless reading.

With the wireless turned on you can search the Kindle store, Google, Wikipedia, and the web in general, as well as you own contents.

Kindle 2 also comes with an "Experimental" option that allows you to access the web, play MP3s and convert Text-to-Speech. Depending on location, I found the web to be a bit slow. Text-to-Speech can be set up to be either male or female, slow or fast. The electronically-generated voice will occasionally mispronounce words that are spelled alike (lead, the metal and "to lead," for example).

You would think Amazon would want to preserve Kindle's aesthetics by providing a case, but, alas, Kindle comes bare. Its protective clothing has to be ordered separately.

Amazon Kindle's most serious shortcoming became evident when books I tried to order were listed as unavailable. This is a shortcoming that I trust a company that started out by selling one million books online will soon correct.

In the meantime the 1,500 books that my Kindle will store will just have to do.