Literary Up

A Wi-fi glitch snapped my Kindle out of kommission. I just kouldn’t get it to rekonnekt. After punching the wi-fi password into it several times during the day, the stars finally aligned and the Kindle got on the same page as the router.
Meantime, I fretted. My Kindle is not a passive device. I use the Kindle app on my phone a lot, but I love the Kindle itself for the ability to subscribe to magazines, newspapers and blogs (including this one). Not to mention ordering books on a whim.
Here’s what I’ve added to the Kindle in recent days:
Las Vegas Review-Journal, the Nevada daily newspaper. I doubt I’ll keep it past the two-week free trial.
Fantasy & Science Fiction Digest, the regularly produced free edition the Kindle offers. I’m not a regular sci-fi reader, but I have my favorites. What I have learned is that I read a lot more short stories on the Kindle than I ever did in books, and Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine was one of the best subscription decisions I ever made.
The script of Amy Herzog’s Belleville, currently at the Yale Repertory Theatre. The Kindle handles all kinds of document files. Mine’s piled up with playscripts, including all ten plays in the 20-hour epic The Warp.
The novel Bright Young Things, a special Kindle Edition which amusingly is rendered in the device’s unvaried typeface as “Bright Young Things With Bonus Material.”
Christmas-themed romantic fiction is climbing the “Kindle Top 100 Free” chart, which I’m not quite ready for. But I pluck trashy books off that list all the time. Right now I’m flirting with the romance novels “Twice a Rake” and “A Scandalous Past,” just because I want to see those titles when I’m skimming through my Kindle menu.