I admit, when I discovered that TODAY Amazon lowered the price of the Kindle2 to $189, I squealed with delight. I have been saving up for one slowly over the past couple months, partly supplied through SwagBucks. In fact, I just got enough SwagBucks to get another $5 gift card. Anyway, since getting a Kindle is not exactly a priority in my home, the lower price means that I will be getting it sooner, as I only need to save up another $100, well, now $95.

And who do I have to thank for this fortunate circumstance? Barnes and Noble, for lowering their Nook to $199 and offering a $149 version with only wi-fi (no 3G). Well, perhaps I should ultimately thank Borders/Kobo for offering a reader at $149 — although I was never much interested in that one because it was lacking key features like a dictionary, 3G, and only had a 8 color grayscale screen. Actually, I did consider the Nook, but after many, many reviews I decided on the Kindle for a variety of reasons.

Thank you free market and good ‘ole competition. May the best eReader win!

** EDIT ** And I also have my wonderful friend Bethany for introducing me to her prize-winning ways and Swagbucks