Interesting comments at Best Buy - iPad

I was playing with an iPad at a Best Buy store this past weekend.  A customer was looking at another iPad.  He asked the employee about the availability of books for the iPad.  The Best Buy employee told the customer he could download a Kindle application for free and read all his Kindle books from Amazon on the iPad, and that books come from Amazon.

At no point did the employee talk about using the Apple book reader.  I couldn't even find the icon for the book reader on the iPad I was looking at, but the Kindle application for the iPad was there.  And the books looked good.

My only complaint about the iPad is the screen glare issue and I think the Kindle screen is easier on the eyes when spending significant periods of time reading.

Apple has some cool hardware, Amazon has the book reader application and book distribution.  Sounds like a good match to me.

If something happened to my Kindle DX, I'd replace it with an iPad.  But until then, I'm going to continue to enjoy my Kindle.

Buying spree!

I'm on a huge buying spree for Kindle books.  Most of them are the free books from Amazon.  But I've bought a few books for a few bucks each.

My biggest complaint about buying books?  If I request a sample of a book, then buy it, why does it download another book?  I still have the "sample" book too.  Buying a book should automatically remove the sample copy when the full copy downloads.

Most of the free books I'm buying are things I don't plan on reading - at least not for a while.  But this way I've got them handy for reference.  Here's a list of some of the recent free books:
The Age of Chivalry, Bulfinch
Age of Fable, Bulfinch
Beowulf
Bulfinch's Mythology, Bulfinch
Canterbury Tales, Chaucer
Dracula, Stoker
Modern Mythology, Lang
Notes to Shakespeare, Vol III Tragedies, Johnson

Some of these are things you are "supposed to read" as an English student, some of them are "classic" things that people keep talking about that I've never read before.

Games!

Yes, they now have GAMES for the Kindle!  I've downloaded a couple free ones.  I hope they come up with more games soon.

One game has a series of letters on the screen and you type in words you can make with those letters.  Letters vanish after they have been up for a while and new ones are added.  Imagine the Scrabble tiles, they appear on the right and slide left until they fall off.

Another game puts up a random selection of letters and you have to make words with them.  It is possible to make words that the game does not recognize in this game.  When you make enough words the game is over.  If you make a special word (very difficult, uses most of the letters) you can unlock the next level and advance.

These may be called "educational" games, but since I like reading and words, it's something fun that can fill a few minutes.  It might also make a fun special reward for a kid in a classroom setting.

I'd like to see a word search game and maybe even a crossword puzzle.