The kindle 2 is also about 20% faster and more responsive then the first gen, it also does away with the awkward side bar thing. I have one of these and love it as well. The kindle store is easy to use and always availible, no monthly fee's, the internet is workable in a pinch, also free. The downloads of books are very quick, normally less then a minute, the process for getting PDF Files on the device is a snap, just email the pdf to your kindle emaill address and it appears on the kindle seconds later. There is a fee for this however, most of the time it's 15 cents per document, but larger documents can be more, I think the most i've been charged is about 1$ for a 15mb pdf. People make way too big a deal out fo the back light, it sounds like a big deal but once you have a kindle and experiance it and the screen, you don't miss it. The screen is pretty amazing and clearly viewable in all lighting conditions, there's never any glare on it, you can read it on the beach, in the car, or even by candle light. Get a good pouch to put it in and a nice LED book light and the problem is solved, it's well worth the trade off, being battery life, you literally can go for weeks on a single charge. The interface is very slick and intuitive as well. The overall product has a lot of polish. Only thing I really regret is bying it in june and paying 360$ for it.