Win a Kindle!

The refurbished Kindles are now out of stock over at Amazon (although you never know when they'll get more in; as new ones are released, the Amazon allows orders, then takes down the listing when they are sold out). Now, your only chance to get a new Kindle for Christmas seems to be a very overpriced one on eBay or to win one. There are several contests going currently and one of the latest is the Holiday Hell Contest, which is counting down with 12 days of prizes. There is a new prize every day, so be sure to check back daily to win. At the end of the 12 days, they will be giving away two Kindles. Make sure you enter both of the Kindle drawings (details here), as entering the daily contests is a separate entry from the Kindle contest.

Get a Refurbished Kindle - In Stock Now!

As those who have tried to order a Kindle (Amazon's Wireless Reading Device) lately are aware, the backorder time is now up to approximately 3 months for a new Kindle. Used Kindles are being sold for roughly two times retail ($700-$850) at Amazon and on Ebay. But, there is still a way to get a "new" Kindle for Christmas and it costs LESS than $359. Amazon is selling their refurbished Kindles for $329. They are currently in stock and you can easily have one in had next week, giving you plenty of time to test it out and load it up with free books before Christmas arrives.

Kindle Bargain Books

A number of Kindle edition books, mostly author back catalogs, have been marked down recently (but there is no guarantee they'll stay at these low prices). The Princess Bride: S. Morgenstern's Classic Tale of True Love and High Adventure is currently $1.95, but if The Princess Diaries is more your style, it's going for $4.76. The best bet for The Princess Diaries, currently, is to read it online for free, over at Harper-Collins' website.

Some examples of authors with bargain books:

Isaac Asimov
Suzanne Brockmann
Jennifer Crusie
Janet Evanovich
Tami Hoag
Kay Hooper
Linda Howard
Iris Johansen
Lester del Rey (classic SciFi)
Robert Silverberg

Note that a number of Robert Silverberg's entries are short stories, but there a few gems in there, with The Book of Skulls and The World Inside both under $1.00 and Dying Inside and Son of Man only slightly more (Son of Man seems to be a love it hate it book - reviews are clustered at the 5 and 1 star range, with those who hate it wanting some way to leave zero stars, so take advantage of the free sample before squandering the $1.50!)

And if you've been thinking of starting restaurant, going into food service or maybe even just remodeling your kitchen, you might want to check out Design and Equipment for Restaurants and Foodservice, which is currently going for $0.01 (yes, that's ONE CENT) in the Kindle Edition. This is a large book (12 MB) and the print version is listed for $63.80 (but no doubt has better pictures), which is actually about $25 less than the 2nd edition hardcover. The Kindle edition is also the newly updated third edition - quite a bargain for those needing this particular information.

Free ebook for Kindle - Dark Resurrection

Dark Resurrection by John A. Karr

The paperback lists at $16 (but is $12.48 at Amazon), but the Kindle edition is available today at no charge. The Kindle editions is also a slight update from the print version (yet another plus of ebooks). Here's the description from the Amazon web site (note the warning about content at the end):

Surgeon Victor Galloway kept death at bay in the operating room-now death has claimed him. Resurrected against his will, he must fight for his family and his soul.

Victor Galloway is a prominent surgeon and family man. When he suffers a heart attack, he claws his way to the phone and dials 911. The paramedics arrive, smile down at him and quickly administer a lethal injection.

Victor-s life is ending, but his nightmare has just begun.

Close to death and strapped to a gurney, he-s offered an unholy deal by Tobias, H.E.L.L.-s CEO: Use his surgical skills to harvest the living to feed the undead in exchange for immortality.

Refused but not to be denied, Tobias presses his unwilling recruit into the ranks of the undead. Whether by chance or divine intervention, Victor is different from the others. He is a monster with a conscience, a force for good ensnared by evil, and the only one willing to stand against Tobias and his burgeoning nest of zombies. He must destroy them, but doing so risks the lives of his family and the last hospital employee with a pulse.

This book has been previously published and has been revised from its original release.

Warning, this title contains the following: dark themes, graphic violence, language, gore, and a smattering of explicit sex.

Kindle Out-of-Stock for the Holidays!

Have you been thinking about getting a Kindle for the Holidays this year, for yourself or someone on your shopping list? If so, you may have waited too late to get one before the end of the year. Two days after the mention on the Oprah show, the Kindle was listed as back-ordered, with a three to four week wait. This past weekend, the early holiday shoppers did the math and put in their orders - the backlog is now up to 11 to 13 weeks (that's right, three months, just as long as when it first released).

I know some are claiming Amazon should have planned better, just as they complained when it was first released. But the popularity of the Kindle, just as with some other hot electronics of the current season and season's past, sometimes overwhelms the best planning (people are still waiting to get the WII Fit in many areas and even the WII console is only in stock now and then and it's been out even longer). Just as the initial year's worth of Kindles sold out in 5.5 hours when it was first released last year, it looks like another year's worth sold out due to the Oprah show and the holiday season. Those who have held out, hoping for a Kindle 2.0, should heed the official word from Amazon: there will be no NEW Kindle design out until 2009 AT THE EARLIEST. Sure, the speculators (who also seem to have a lot of pro-Apple iPhone articles on their blogs) keep mentioning that a new version will be out "soon", but it may be another year (or more) before a new hardware design hits the shelves.

In the meantime, reserve yours now and put an IOU under the tree. You can actually start purchasing books for the Kindle (unless it's a gift for someone not on your Amazon account, in which case you should make sure you check the box to mark it as a gift, so it doesn't register to your account) as soons as it ships (and maybe as soon as you order; I don't know about back-ordered ones), so that the IOU under the tree can be cashed in for a loaded Kindle, with books ready to read, right out of the box, when it does finally arrive.