Other Things Amazon Wants You To Buy

The vast and humorless minds at Amazon unveiled their billboard-sized electronic-file-reading device this week, at a price to make Morgan gulp and a monochromatism reminiscent of the great tabloids of the '40s. I've seen speculation elsewhere on the web that the real purpose of that device is to make the regular Kindle seem inexpensive and portable, which would be fiendishly inventive if true.

But all I know is that Amazon has other stuff to sell, and that they keep sending me e-mails about it. So let me unload some banners & such on you folks, early on a quiet Saturday:

Amazon may be trying to kill the magazine with the Kindle, but their other hand is trying to sell magazines, and they have a special promotion running for the next couple of months, with discounts on a wide variety of magazine subscriptions. I still think buying magazine subscriptions from an e-commerce website is a weird model, but why listen to me when you can get two years of Sunset for thirty bucks?

Speaking of magazines, you can also get the "commemorative" issue of Entertainment Weekly tied to the new Star Trek movie at half price. EW is as thin as a standard American comic these days, so half-price might be just the right level for it.

Amazon would also, really, really like you to think of them first when buying really expensive things like jewelry, diamond engagement rings (at 40% off, no less!), and luxury watches (which they hope you'll buy for Father's Day out of guilt over what the old man did for you).

So your choice is clear: sit on your hands, and watch the economy continue to nosedive, or spend more money than you have to restart the frenzied consumerism of the mid-90s. Decisions, decisions....