If you were on the fence about getting one of their nifty Kindles, Amazon.com and Stephen King have just found something to prove the grass is definitely greener on their side.

In his new novella, Ur, King examines the future of the written word - for better or worse.

Following a nasty break-up, lovelorn college English instructor Wesley Smith can't seem to get his ex-girlfriend's parting shot out of his head: "Why can't you just read off the computer like the rest of us?" Egged on by her question and piqued by a student's suggestion, Wesley places an order for Amazon.com's Kindle eReader. The [pink?] device that arrives in a box stamped with the smile logo – via one-day delivery that he hadn't requested – unlocks a literary world that even the most avid of book lovers could never imagine. But once the door is open, there are those things that one hopes we'll never read or live through.

Ur is available for pre-order for $2.99 and will be released with Kindle 2's debut on February 24th. For Kindle customers who pre-order, King’s new novella will download automatically when it becomes available, according to King's site.

Stephen King became the fore-runner of literature meeting technology when he released The Plant in 2000 as an e-book in six installments which were distributed through his web site with an honor system payment plan.

About The Kindle 2
Kindle 2 is available for pre-order for $359 and will ship February 24.

Kindle 2 includes all the features Kindle customers enjoy, including:

• The choice of six text sizes
• Add bookmarks, notes, and highlights
• Read personal documents such as Microsoft Word and PDF, and view images, all delivered wirelessly
• Search Web, Wikipedia.org, Kindle Store, and Your Kindle Library where customers’ purchased content is stored
• No setup required — Kindle comes ready to use — no software to load or set up

Customers who are currently in line for the original Kindle will receive an automatic upgrade to the new Kindle 2.

Amazon.com, Inc. introduced Amazon Kindle 2 yesterday; the new reading device that offers Kindle’s revolutionary wireless delivery of content in a new slim design with longer battery life, faster page turns, over seven times more storage, sharper images, and a new read-to-me feature. Kindle 2 is purpose-built for reading with a high-resolution 6-inch electronic paper display that looks and reads like real paper, which lets users read for hours without the eyestrain caused by reading on a backlit display.

“Kindle 2 is everything customers tell us they love about the original Kindle, only thinner, faster, crisper, with longer battery life, and capable of holding hundreds more books. If you want, Kindle 2 will even read to you — something new we added that a book could never do,” said Jeff Bezos, Amazon.com Founder and CEO. “While we’re excited about Kindle 2, we know that great hardware is useless without vast selection. That’s why the Kindle Store offers customers over 230,000 books.”