For some time now, digital technology has been inventing new things we’ve never seen before. The futuristic outlook has generated such marvels as multifunction cell phones, life-saving medical devices and Furbies. However in a retro twist, technology is looking back to the days of Gutenberg and the printing press. Technology is trying to reinvent how you read books.

Last week when you were visiting family and prepping for turkey day, Amazon – whose employees apparently have nothing better to do around Thanksgiving – released Amazon Kindle, their electronic book reader. Kindle joins the ranks of Sony and four other companies you’ve never heard of in an attempt to capture the sexy and exciting reading industry.

I did have a crazed debate with myself like a hobo low on vodka on whether I should even bring focus to Kindle. After all it isn’t groundbreaking in concept, philosophy or even technology. But there are some particulars that capture my interest and are worth mentioning.

First off the Kindle is backed by Amazon – also known as the largest book retailer online. Not a bad place to start. Kindle’s release library of 88,000 titles is cool, but a far cry from the millions available through good old print on Amazon.com. Although I’m sure this is something Amazon will rapidly add to in the coming months, this presents the first problem for Kindle: It’s limited.

Kindle uses a voluntary subscription model. That is, once you stomach the $399 price tag all you’ve got is an oversized plastic coaster. You’ve still got to buy the content. Kindle supports reading existing documents like Word files, eBooks and PDFs you already own and even RSS feeds so you can keep up on news and blogs. However all of the content can only be purchased through Amazon.com.

Sure that makes sense for brand new $9.99 New York Times Bestsellers, but charging to view content you already own is what I assume a Recording Industry Association of America’s MP3 player would act like. Sure the RIAA’s player would also suck your blood for power and punch your grandma for “fair use” royalties, but charging $.99 per month to read blogs is Kindle’s way of saying “screw you free content, it’s time to pay.” In Amazon’s defense, one of the coolest features is most likely the culprit behind the taxing fees. Kindle has a built in cell phone modem that downloads all the content. This is cool because Amazon fronts the bill for the modem (hence the charges?) but requires you to use nothing but the modem. So no external memory card slots here. Because of the single path for content, Amazon charges users even to read their own Word documents. Which you have to e-mail to the device through Amazon.com.

Humm, you’d think it would be cheaper with all these fees. Say something around the $279.99 that Sony charges for their Reader – a device you can use to view your existing library for free. With the hidden fees that can add up quickly, Kindle has many unattractive qualities more akin to a cell phone than a laptop.

Finally, there is light at the end of the tunnel. For being a Kindle user you do get free access to Wikipedia. By weighing in at only 10 ounces, Kindle gives you the chance to be mobile and read wiki articles about how the Holocaust never happened at the same time. Errors aside, Wikipedia’s vast amount of information may be Kindle’s saving grace as its free, ubiquitous wiki access could justify the price tag.

Personally, I am a fan of eReaders, eBook Readers, ePaper – whatever you want to call it. But I’m still hesitant. For me the true coolness of these devices is the displays that actually do give the more natural feeling of reading on good old murdered forest paper. Although they are black and white now, I’ve felt very comfortable reading large amounts of text on them over bright computer monitors. True, with these new “eInk” displays, you don’t get the satisfaction of knowing something has died, but they do give you the ability to carry an unlimited amount of data without the bulk. Give me color support and some flexible screens (appearing on the horizon) and I’m sold – eFee tax raping or not.