But for long form reading, give me the Kindle.

(Shrug) Different tools for different jobs.

Consider the classic science fiction novel “The Space Merchants” by Frederik Pohl and Cyril M. Kornbluth. The authors present a satirical world in which advertising agencies wield enormous power. When the protagonist visits the Metropolitan Museum of Art he finds a “big, late-period Maidenform – number thirty-five in the catalogue: “I Dreamed I Was Ice-Fishing in My Maidenform Bra”"

A reader unfamiliar with this famous campaign of the 1950s and 1960s could use a browser to read about it in Wikipedia and view exemplar color reproductions such as “I dreamed I went to blazes in my Maidenform bra” and “I dreamed I went to a masquerade in my Maidenform bra” that were probably titillating to some viewers in the 1950s. The authors invented the frigid ice-fishing context to highlight the absurdity of the partial clothing, and to mock the elevation of commercial kitsch to “Art” status. Since Andy Warhol’s canvases of Campbell Soup cans are now in the collection of the Modern Museum of Art the humor has an additional ironic twist for contemporary readers.

In the novel the Metropolitan Museum of Art also has a prominently displayed bust of G. Washington Hill. A browser search reveals that George Washington Hill was a marketing prodigy credited with the dubious accomplishment of convincing more women to smoke with catchphrases such as “Reach for a Lucky Instead of a Sweet.” The novel contains references to other people such as Albert Fish and Gilles de Rais whose fame and infamy are unknown to some readers. A quick internet exploration is enlightening.

Thus ready access to a browser can enrich the ebook reading experience. The Kindle does allow access to Wikipedia and the internet, but it is unable to display color images. Also the browser is somewhat primitive and awkward.