The Kindle we got for Christmas continues to open doors for us. On our recent Hawaii trip, just for fun we downloaded a small group of Jack London short stories about Hawaii -- for free. It turned out to be perfect for the long flight home.

On vacation, we had spent some quality time with a first novel written by a friend of ours, Jack Walker. It's called The Extraordinary Rendition of Vincent Dellamaria, and it is surprisingly good. Walker's a smart guy. He's got a fine understanding of people and an ear for their language, and he spins a great tale. We were sorry when the e-reader told us we had read 100% of the text. May there be many more of these.

It's funny how we've reached that age where we're often reading books written by people we know. An interesting stage in life.

Lately we've also been fooling around with Dante's Divine Comedy. Without an English Lit test coming up, or Cliff Notes nearby, one has to be genuinely ready to concentrate to get what's going on there, but taken a little at a time, it's a rewarding pastime. What would the author say if he could see us reading his words on such a gadget, 700 years after he penned them? We're nearly as amazed as he would be.