Our friends over at Good E-Reader alerted us this morning to a Valentine’s  Day promotion that’s being planned by the good folks at Kobo: Starting this Friday, January 25, and running all the way through Valentine’s Day (Thursday, February 14), the fantastic and too-small-to-be-believed Kobo Mini e-reader will be available for just $59.99—that’s a full $20 off the Mini’s regular retail price. According to Good E-Reader, “Patrons will … also get a free [SnapBack] case in the color of their choice.”

Where can you take advantage of the deal? Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem as if it’ll be offered online, although I’m not entirely sure; I have an email out to the Kobo team, and I’ll be sure to update this post later in the day (or later in the week) if I happen to find out otherwise. According to the Good E-Reader post, however, (some) independent bookstores that are members of the American Booksellers Association will be offering the deal. I would strongly suggest calling the indie shop of your choice before heading out in person, though, as not all ABA member stores sell Kobo devices.

(In the United States, Best Buy stores and the Family Christian chain of bookstores also carry Kobo devices.)

Incidentally, I feel the need to point out that after undertaking literally dozens of different Google Image searches, I have yet to find a photo anywhere that does an appropriately accurate job of showing just how incredibly tiny the Kobo Mini actually is. The photo above comes from the Kobo website, and frankly, it’s the best one I’ve found so far. But as far as I’m concerned, it still doesn’t compare at all to actually seeing the Mini in person.

I feel that’s important to point out, because while some people—myself included—absolutely love miniscule tech gadgets, it’s also true that more than a few serious e-reading enthusiasts have declared the Mini to be way too small for even casual reading. As someone who regularly reads book-length works on a standard-sized HTC smartphone, I can’t imagine having a problem with the Mini myself … unless I happened to purchase it online without actually realizing just how “mini” it really was.

So, fair warning: Clearly, you can take this thing with you pretty much wherever you go—it’s probably about the same weight as a pack of cigarettes or a reporter’s notebook. And yet if the process of flipping to the next page every 60 seconds is going to drive you crazy before you finish a chapter, you’ll probably want to give this particular promo a miss.

NO COMMENTS

  1. And to make it more complicated, my local Best Buy has them, but they’ve never registered them, so you can look and touch but can’t try out reading on the darned thing. Best Buy is not helping them here.

  2. Between the Black Friday sale ($50), the giveaway when purchasing an Arc, and now this, surely Kobo is using this as the Mini trojan horse to get the device into as many hands as possible. If Kobo isn’t taking too much of a hit at $50 or $60, then it might be worth it with the subsequent ebook bought on it.

    Or maybe there’s no more strategy involved other than desperately unloading stock.

    Anyways, I managed to get a Mini for $50 and at that price it’s a great secondary reader.

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