Kindling

About two weeks ago, I posted some raves and rants about my Kindle (Wi-Fi). My enjoyment of my ereader came to a screeching halt Sunday afternoon when I attempted to wake my Kindle.

For those who do not own a Kindle, if the unit is idle for a sufficient amount of time, it will go to sleep, just like a notebook computer does. The text you were reading is replaced by a screen saver. You need to push the power slider on the bottom to return it to wakefulness. Ralph Ellison was displayed on my screen when I pushed the power slider to return to my book.

Nothing happened. Ralph continued to look at me.

Okay, maybe I didn't push the slider all of the way to the right. I tried a second time and a third time.

Ralph remained. What is up with that?! I don't like Ralph Ellison's works. Is the guy somehow forcing my Kindle to channel a projection of his astral self in an attempt to force me to consider reading his stuff?

Nope, nothing quite so flowery. The answer was much more prosaic: the Kindle, it was dead.

I did not hyperventilate but I made have made a child-like whimpering noise deep in my throat. My Kindle was not quite two months old! I rushed home and called Kindle Support.

There was a minor panicky interval during which I actually did begin to hyperventilate. The Kindle support agent at first misunderstood my request for a replacement. He thought I was asking for a full return and refund. Once we got that all straightened out, though, the process went smoothly. He set about the process of sending me a new Kindle and issuing a return label for the broken unit to be sent back to Amazon.

I spent a bit of time reviewing my digital bookshelf on the Amazon web site, tracking down descriptions for all of the books I had purchased and assigning them to their genres. All that was left to do at that point was to wait.

And wait.

And wait.

Until yesterday morning when I came home from educating the masses in the vagaries of the Java programming language: FedEx had already come and gone and my new Kindle was sitting right next to my door. Yay!

Downloading the library took a bit of time. Tagging each individual book took rather a bit more time but by the end of the day, all of my library was restored and sorted by genre.

Have to say that while I would not wish this on any ereader user, the folks at Kindle Support made the situation as minimally painful as possible.

Now all I need to do is to think up a name for the new Kindle. Ideas, anyone?