I’ve had my eye on an Amazon Kindle for a while now – if it could read properly formatted PDFs (aka scripts) I’d have already made the leap. Unfortunately, that seems to be the exclusive purview of the Kindle DX – which is a cool $499.

That said, E-Ink technology is *amazing* for book junkies like myself. I used a Sony Reader for years and loved carrying dozens of books around in a device that needed recharging every few weeks.

So when I stumbled on the refurbished Kindles, I immediately threw the info up here for anyone looking to buy one who also appreciates a sweeeeeet discount.

Generation 1 Kindles are selling for $149 (original MSRP: $300+) refurbished and 2.0 is $219 (current MSRP: @249). They’re not always in stock, so check back periodically if it’s unavailable when you look. Here are links to both product pages:

Amazon Kindle (1st Generation) – $149.00 • Amazon Kindle (2nd Generation) – $219.00

But the Next Level for me was dropping my massive script library into a reader and using it to read scripts. So when I read that the now-defunct William Morris Agency gifted all of their employees with Kindles in an effort to cut down on the amount of paper being used printing scripts, I was pumped. They must know something I didn’t, I figured.

They didn’t.

It would be *so* awesome if reading screenplays on a Kindle was remotely comfortable. But it just isn’t – it unnaturally reformats PDFs into something very different, destroying the entire experience. John August does a nice job of demonstrating this on his site.

It’s worth mentioning that the jumbo Kindle DX is a different story – it’s screen is almost 10 inches, making it perfect for reading a script and it doesn’t reformat PDF’s like the smaller version does. But it’s $500 and also quite heavy in the hand (I read for hours at a clip). Which makes it a fail for me.

So I just read on my laptop and wait for technology to catch up to my wants. Like it always does.