THE KINDLE FIRE gets a lengthy hands-on review from Tania Gail. She likes it.

I like mine, too. Over the weekend I finished Neal Stephenson’s Reamde — good, but a straight thriller, unlike his last several books — and read Frank J.’s new magnum opus in its entirety, both on the Fire. I like it, but I prefer the double-page view you can get on the iPad. Of course, that’s because the iPad’s screen is twice as big.

UPDATE: On the other hand, the browser keeps crashing on me tonight. First time it’s done that, but it keeps happening.

ANOTHER UPDATE: On Reamde, reader Geoff Well writes: “On first glance it’s a straight forward geeknothriller, and not a bad one. On further thought, it’s about ethics and family loyalty.” Yes, and that’s a recurring theme of his: the Forthrast clan reminded me of the Shaftoes.

MORE: Reader Thomas Prewitt writes:

I followed your lead and advance ordered the Fire. Overall, it meets my needs.

I look at the Fire as a “Kindle with benefits”. Good for reading, particularly in bed at night after my wife turns out the lights. And the Fire travels much easier than a laptop. I can keep up with Instapundit, news, etc. better than using my Android phone.

And here’s an interesting observation. We were in the Mississippi Delta at a wedding this weekend and stayed at a Hampton Inn. The hotel had free wifi but the signal was very weak. My wife couldn’t log on with her iPad, but I could log on with the Kindle Fire with no problems. A friend of mine even had to watch the Saturday debate in the hallway because his iPad could pick up a signal in his room.

Chalk one up to Kindle Fire!

Interesting. I haven’t tried mine where the wi-fi is weak — I have a good signal pretty much everywhere.

STILL MORE: Another reader writes:

Having read every word Stephenson’s written several times over, it strikes me that his underlying theme is “People who find themselves in
societies in transition, and the technology that drives the transitional events.”

The fact that his fiction has been converging on our reality is noteworthy.

Yes, and in such times, family and ethics are particularly important.