Kindle

I got a new Kindle for my birthday.  I loved my first generation Kindle, but not for its appearance.  This one, however, is pretty enough to bling out.  What you see above: custom designed Gelaskin and a padded case from Lollington on Etsy.

So far, I love my new Kindle although the user interface is different and I miss the Gen1 content manager.  I bought it when the hype about the then-unnamed iPad was at a fever pitch, and a part of me wondered if I'd regret buying a new Kindle when (according to rumor, at least) Apple was so heavily pregnant with the Messiah of ereaders.

The answer?  Nope, no regrets.  I read books, and the matte, electronic ink screens of ereaders from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Sony et al is much better for sustained, long-form reading than a full-color, backlit LED.   If my media of choice were magazines, newspapers, and blogs I'd probably prefer the iPad.  For a lot of people, that's what they consume and that's what they should buy.  

I say this a lot but maybe I haven't said it here: when I first bought my Kindle, I thought I'd only use it for trashy novels.  Books that I didn't want to keep and cherish, books I didn't want to display on my shelves, books whose covers I didn't feel like exposing on the subway to judgy, judgy strangers.

I have been seriously surprised to discover how much I prefer it to a paper copy.  It always fits in my purse.  The screen always flickers on to just the right page.  It's always the same weight, whether I'm reading a novella or a doorstop.  I can hold it, and turn pages, with one hand.  I can buy books while waiting to board my flight at an airport.  I can buy a new release without making a sidetrip to the bookstore.  I love getting book samples, and being able to read them at my leisure - instead of hunting for an empty chair at a bookstore (they are always all occupied), or sitting on the floor (I think this bothers other people more than it bothers me, but a lot of other people getting a little bothered does add up).  I don't have to worry about cracking the spine or bending the cover while reading those first few pages, and the samples usually include a full chapter or more - I'd feel guilty reading that far into an unpurchased book at a bookstore.  I love having 10 or 15 samples in my menu, so when I finish a book I can instantly dip into another - exactly the book I'm in the mood for at that exact moment in time  (you know how sometimes you put a movie on your Netflix queue because you can't wait to watch it, but when it arrives the next day you are inexplicably in the mood for a different kind of film?  You ordered a comedy and want a drama; you ordered a thriller and feel like a rom-com, etc., and then it's just not as fun to watch the movie you couldn't wait to see the night before.  Like that, but with books, and instant gratification).  I love being able to juggle multiple books at once - something I never used to do (this may not be a positive side-effect, but I like it).

I've dabbled in bookbinding.  I take pleasure in a well-designed cover, a well-chosen font, a layout that gives the text just enough room to breathe.  I enjoy books as objects.  But I don't fetishize them.  I don't read for the experience of holding a pretty paper product.  I read for the content, and when I weigh up all the pros and cons there's no doubt about it: reading on the Kindle is just plain better.  

So that's that.  Now I read everything I can on the Kindle.  I read Middlemarch on my Kindle.  I read The Great Deluge on my Kindle.  I read Tom Jones and Tristram Shandy on my Kindle.  Given the choice, I will pick the Kindle every time.  

mashmallows

I've been a vegetarian for 13 years now, and one of the things I've missed the most was marshmallows.  No marshmallows in hot chocolate, no smores, no Rice Krispy Treats.  Those are some seriously comforting comfort foods.

I find it hardest not to eat things that have meat products, but don't resemble meat in any way - meat doesn't really look like food to me anymore, or trigger hunger pains.  But skittles and jello and marshmallows look so harmless and delicious.

Well, Whole Foods - at least the one by my work - has just started carrying vegan marshmallows.  There's been a gourmet marshmallow craze lately and I'd been hoping that someone would cook something up for the niche market of vegetarians, and it's finally happened.  

I can't compare them to proper marshmallows - it's been too long since I've had one - but they have that powdery outside that I remember, they are soft and sticky but not gooey and don't dissolve quickly in hot chocolate.  Exactly what I'd been missing.

I've been having hot chocolate with a marshmallow in it almost every day for the past couple of weeks.  It's just been such a treat.

Vegan fashion is finally coming into fashion

Stella McCartney and LeSportSac collaborate on vegan handbags, luggage, and accessories.

Natalie Portman designs vegan shoes.

Drool.

Seal Bay

I just ate about a half pound of Seal Bay cheese from King's Island, Tasmania. It's one of those uber-creamy bries that you can scoop out of the rind with a cracker without making the cracker crumble. Very sweet and creamy, with an amazing aftertaste of seashells. It tastes like the beach, in a good way which I could never have imagined without actually trying the stuff. Plus, it's pasteurized, so even pregnant ladies can indulge!

Anybody with an interest in fine/oddball cheeses should snap this up if they ever see it.

Breath Palette

is my new favorite product. It's a Japanese brand of toothpaste that comes in forty different flavors, all of them bizarre: green tea, Japanese plum, bitter chocolate, Indian curry, pumpkin pudding, café au lait, fresh yogurt, etc. This is the kind of thing I find exciting on principle, and to test the quality I decided to sample one of the flavors I thought would be most difficult to achieve succesfully in toothpaste: darjeeling tea. I thought that if it was artificial or too pasty, the tea-scent would end up bitter or medicinal. Lo and behold, the toothpaste surpassed my wildest expectations: the flavor was subtle, pleasant, and sophisticated. Delightful, actually. Plus, brushing your teeth with tea-flavored toothpaste makes breakfast much more palatable.

Yesterday I bought three more tubes: caramel, honey, and café au lait. The tubes are pretty small, so they are great for sampling and for travel. I've tried the honey - which is a bit too mild, and not very striking, and the café au lait, which is delicious.

I'm sure that Breath Palette toothpaste is difficult to find in most places, but if you come across it anywhere, give it a whirl.