Amazon e-reader Kindle 2 is a nifty, if costly, second act

— -- Hate to spoil the ending, but here's what you need to know about Kindle 2.

In a turbulent economy, first-time buyers may balk, too. Still, Kindle 2 represents the finest e-book reader you can buy, even if at times it leaves you wanting more. Color is years away. But why, in this day and age, no touch-screen?

Amazon began shipping the new Kindle on Monday, a day before it said it would. I've been curling up with one for a couple of weeks.

You can schlep a library of 1,500 books (plus newspapers, magazines and blogs) in a contraption that weighs less than a paperback. The built-in wireless store that lets you sample, purchase and download content in less than a minute is what distances the Kindle from e-book rivals such as Sony. The technology, which Amazon calls Whispernet, is built on top of Sprint's fast EV-DO network.

More than 240,000 books are for sale in the Kindle Store, including most best sellers, typically for under $10. Newspapers fetch $5.99 to $14.99 monthly; magazines, $1.25 to $3.49 per month.

The new model boasts easier, if still imperfect, navigation, and it has a slimmer and more attractive design, though it only comes in white. The first Kindle included a flimsy cover. This one doesn't, though for $30, you can get a leather cover that has a hinge to ensure it won't slide off. Let's dive in:

•Design. At slightly more than a third of an inch thick, Kindle 2 is a lot thinner and a tad taller than the original. One annoying drawback to the first Kindle was the way I kept inadvertently hitting the "next page" buttons on either edge of the display.

That's no longer a problem. Buttons on the new Kindle are smaller and less obtrusive.