Here are some differences:

1. The page turning buttons have been fixed. Yea!!! I couldn’t hold the old Kindle without inadvertently turning the page, which rendered it unusable for me. The new model fixes that problem.

2. While the old Kindle looked and felt like a hunk of junk, the new Kindle is an elegant object. Both the design and the manufacturing standards were atrocious on the old Kindle. Not only was it as ugly as sin, but all of the buttons were all out of alignment and there were giant gaps between the plastic and the screen. I cringed every time I used it. The new device is still no iPod, but it is a pleasure to hold. (One thing remains that I still HATE: Having the hideous AmazonKindle logo — the “smirk” — on the front of the device. iPod has its name only on the back of the object; why can’t Kindle? And why a smirk?)

3. The screen quality is much, much better. It may have been because I got my first Kindle from the very first batch, but the screen and text on the old model looked very grainy, like newsprint. The grey background was mottled and the text was fuzzy, like text had “bled” into the paper. It was like reading a super-cheap paperback. The new screen has a very smooth background and very crisp letters. I’m still not crazy about the drab grey color of the screen and greater contrast would improve readability, but to me it is exponentially better.

4. I actually like the audio feature. I thought that was something I’d never use, but I turned it on for my morning commute and it was surprisingly tolerable. Of course, if I had the choice of an audio book read by an actual human, I’d choose that every time, but given the limited selection of real audio books this is an acceptable substitute. Yes, it sounds like your GPS lady is reading to you, but it is 100x better than I ever thought it would be.

5. The thrill of downloading something on the spot still gives me a rush. While there are still many things to iron out — WE WANT THE ABILITY TO MAKE FOLDERS, AMAZON! — the flaws are not significant enough to get in the way of my overall enjoyment. This is not to say that the device will replace paper books for me; there is still something about a book as a physical object that I love and crave. But I’ll likely keep my Kindle charged and with me all the time now (and I’ll likely buy both the hard copy and Kindle version when available).

6. Finally, for those romantics out there who think that there is something heretical about a device like this, think of it this way: Never again will you have to leave the house without your top 100 (or 1000) all-time favorite books by your side. In fact, I plan to go download the complete works of Jane Austen, Charles Dickens and Paul Auster right now. (But not Emily Dickinson. Everyone knows you can’t read poetry on an electronic device! That would just be wrong.)