Will the latest Kindle catch fire?

The Kindle 2 debuted in February, and like most sequels, reviews were mixed. If you haven’t heard, Amazon’s new 10-ounce e-reader is the latest electronic gizmo to try to connect fancy book learnin’ with the modern, technological lifestyle. Think of it as an iPod for the written word. Someone has to keep our texting, tweeting, blog-saturated language from reducing itself to “LOLZ,” “pwned” and “woot,” and Amazon just may lead the charge. It is no surprise that the first company to pose a serious threat to the traditional bookstore is now going after the book itself.

It’s a pricy enterprise, though, particularly during a recession. The Kindle 2 retails for $359 and can store up to 1,500 books. Amazon offers more than 230,000 titles for download, and most cost about $10.

Crime and Punishment, The Infinite Jest, the Bible. They’re all just a third of an inch thick on the sleek and wireless Kindle 2. This efficiency of scale and resources is one benefit that appealed to Danielle Clapinski.

“Before my Kindle I bought paperback after paperback and had nothing to do with them after I finished reading them,” says the 30-year-old attorney for the Department of Revenue. “It felt so wasteful, and now I don’t have that problem.” Clapinski saw the original Kindle on an episode of The Oprah Winfrey Show last October and picked one up the following week. She recently read the entire Twilight series electronically and doesn’t even miss turning printed pages.

“For someone who reads a lot, it’s a great investment, even though it isn’t cheap,” Clapinski says. “With our current economy, many people won’t sacrifice $350 for a luxury item when they can buy or borrow the same books, but people have gotten accustomed to having everything on one device, so I think it will become more popular when it is on a device with everything else.”

In the meantime there are Kindle competitors, too—less expensive no-frills gadgets like the 64MB eBookwise that retails for less than $150. Megan Gilbert, a 26-year-old computer design student, bought one and can store about 40 volumes on it. Gilbert is a voracious reader and book collector, but she’s also practical. “I can store an entire library on it, and not have to carry around my old duffle bag with 10 or 15 books,” she says. “And you’re looking at $7 to $10 for a brand new book instead of paying $30 or more for the hardback. I think e-books will become more popular, but as long as we have paper, we’ll have people printing stuff on it.”

Are e-readers a transitional technology? Will Amazon soon integrate Kindle technology with smart phones? The company’s affable but tight-lipped CEO Jeff Bezos won’t say, though Amazon certainly is hard at work on the next generation of book technology.

The Kindle 2 could alter the way many read, or even give printed books a good run, but with a mere 6-inch screen, it would appear that reading glasses are here to stay.