Thad McIlroy - The Future of Publishing

The Kindle Could Become Your Best Friend on an Oil Rig

An hilarious short imagined monologue by Amazon's Jeff Bezos appears on the McSweeney site. Written by Evan Johnston under the title "Jeff Bezos Says Hi to You in the Waiting Room of Your Doctors' Office," Bezos confesses that the inspiration for the Kindle began in his childhood: "As a small child, I loved books, and dreamed of a way to read them on my Etch A Sketch or calculator. And dreams, as we all know, have a way of coming true."

Things get more bizarre as Bezos tries to engage you in understanding the value of the Kindle. "Now, like you, I get a lot of my reading done in the least hospitable of places. There's the airport, the ensuing plane flight, and the subsequent crash in the middle of an ocean, followed by being marooned on a deserted oil rig." Continuing with the oil rig conundrum Bezos explains that "assuming it doesn't get wet, the Kindle could become your best friend on that oil rig—unless there are other survivors. In the likely event that those survivors turned against you—let's say they know that you caused the accident by demanding that the pilot look at your Kindle—you would be forced to deal with them. Harshly."

Enough. Please go to the link above and enjoy this little gem for yourself. You could even read it on your Kindle! (Thanks to Quill & Quire's Quillblog for the tip.)