Kindle ideal for self-gratification, says Bezos

by Derek Weiler

Amazon founder Jeff Bezos hit The Daily Show with Jon Stewart Monday night to promote the second-generation Kindle. Gawker has a clip collage that focuses on Bezos’s habit of laughing maniacally, but they seem to have missed a couple other things. One was Stewart’s instinctive pushback on the Kindle’s US$359 price. When Bezos tried to mollify him by saying that books are only $9.99, Stewart’s response was along the lines of, “You have to buy books too?”

Also notable: the loose and laughing Bezos tossed out a previously unmentioned fringe benefit of the device. To wit: you can, er, read it with one hand. Give Captain Amazon credit: it’s hard to imagine any other book-biz CEO being willing to mix it up with Stewart on the host’s own terms.