A year ago I received a Kindle Fire for my birthday. I hadn’t asked for one and in a lot of ways I really didn’t want one, but I toyed with it a bit and realized that I kind of liked it. It was quicker to get web access on it than it was my laptop, was more mobile and generally lasted longer on a battery. Over a six week period it grew to be a pretty big presence in my life, and my traditional e-ink Kindle was more or less set aside. I pull it out now and again and I still think it’s better for text-to-speech than the Fire, but I’ll be honest, if I had opened it three days ago to find it broken down I wouldn’t be heartbroken. The Fire would suffice to replace it.