Passion for Books:reKindled or Extinguished

It was around 3 months back that I saw the article announcing Amazon's Kindle in Newsweek, and it has taken a surprisingly short time for this new technological revolution to hit India. For thse unaware of the Kindle, it is, to simplify things, an iPod for books. It is a pocket book reader launched by Amazon. This idea has been tried before by other big names before (even Sony tried it) and they all failed, some more miserably than others. But Kindle tries to offer what none of them did before, a more authentic reading experience for the book lover, it's got a new technology which mimics the appearance of a book on the screen. In addition it's got other features which a book can not offer, for instance people with poor eyesight can actually adjust the font size of the text, and you can store several thousand books on a single device, which means no more overflowing bookshelves ( a problem I have personally dealt with). Also it makes finding and buying books much more easier, particularly getting hold of very old or rare books.
Thus it has given rise to several Nostradames' of print who have claimed that this is the end of the paperback as we know it? Is it?
I dont think so, 1st of all practically speaking, there are several cost issues, particularly in India. I somehow cant see people spending 10k on a book reading device when most people dont buy 10k worth books in their entire lifetime. Also buying books will become far more expensive, simpler but expensive, because we'll have to purchase books directly from Amazon or some other website, which is a huge jump in expenses considering most Indians do their book shopping in second-hand and roadside book shops.
On a more aesthetic level, half the fun in books comes with sitting in a book store for hours together and going through a dozen books to pick one. Somehow I cant see that happening while browsing through Amazon and getting everything I need to find by clicking on 'related links'. Also how authentic the reading experienced promised by the Kindle will be, only time will tell. Also it wouldn't be very prudent to give our generation with very low attention spans a device with a thousand books on it, I am sure most of them wont finish the more than a 50 pages of each book before moving on to the next.
Personally though, I wouldn't mind having a kindle, I mean think of th potential-if I am on the road(which is where I find myself most of the time these days) I will never get bored also while reading a book before going to bed, I can pick one which most suits my mood.
Neverthless, I am not holidng my breath for the Kindle, neither will be any hurry to get my hands on it. For now I am happy with paperbacks, my college library and the bookstore round the corner of my house, which give me all the reading pleasure I need.

To Stumble or not to Stumble, that is the question?

A few months back a friend of mine told me about this thing called Stumble and according to me this is possibly the best tool possible for all net junkies.
I am sure a lot of you would have already tried it but for those haven't this is how stumble works...you download the stumble toolbar and create your profile filling in your interests. You can then use the tool bar to randomly surf through the net based only on your interests..basically the toolbar shows you random web pages based on your interests..its got a host of other options..you can even generate ramdom you tube videos...
I am posting this cause i found stumble amazingly fun and its not half as invasive or annoying as social networking sites aka orkut,facebook...
The only drawback is that its damn addictive..i've spent hours at a time stumbling away...so if you've got time to waste..this is the most fun way to do it..
Here's the link...
http://www.stumbleupon.com/