Today must have been a great day for Read Streeter Claude. He's been tireless in his mission to convince us of the glory that is Kindle. And although I discovered that the device left a lot to be desired last year, I'm incredibly impressed with what I've seen of the latest version, kindle 2.

Amazon unveiled kindle 2 (which is spelled both upper and lower case at different places) in New York today, and the presentation included Stephen King's latest: a horror story involving a pink Kindle, which is available only by download for Kindle readers, of course.

The marked improvements I noticed from the presentation:

1. They made the navigational buttons smaller, so there's less chance of an accidental page turn. However, the main menu button still looks to be in an awkward place, just where my thumb would press down to hold the device. I'll have to wait to judge once I get my hands on one, but it's nice to see the smarter design.

2. Finally, a numeric system to mark how far along you are through a book. Yes, there were a number of dots at the bottom of the screen to mark your progress through the first Kindle. Kindle 2 goes a step further and gives you the percentage, though. I'd much rather be able to say I'm 33 percent, or a third of the way through a book, than 10 dots away from the end.

3. There are many more books and newspapers to choose from, and they're getting cheaper everyday. This was my biggest problem last time. The books were far too expensive for a reader who had just paid $360 for the device, and then the editing of the books I read were subpar. Now new releases and best-sellers are $9.99 and most other books are much cheaper, and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos reports that 103 of the 110 New York Times best-sellers are available on Kindle. AND you can preview a book you're interested in by downloading the first chapter for free!

So kindle 2 has my attention! For those of you whose minds are already made up, you can preorder now and get your kindle 2 by Feb. 24. And for the loyal original Kindle owners, if you order by midnight tomorrow, your order gets first priority.

(Photo courtesy of amazon.com)