interesting books

i ran across a couple of books that look interesting. the first is 'Impossible?: Surprising Solutions to Counterintuitive Conundrums' by julian havil. a great way to challenge students and keep the puzzler sharp. the second book is 'How Round Is Your Circle?: Where Engineering and Mathematics Meet'. i was thinking this might help people who struggle with the traditional approach to mathematics instruction to develop a more physical intuition.

kindle

amazon is selling a device called the kindle. it's an ebook reader that looks like it uses electronic ink. looks like a very high-quality display and has a long battery life. built-in qwerty, too. i wonder how hackable? if there's a way for me to break off amazon's manacles, this might be my zaurus replacement.... UPDATE: apparently the kindle runs linux and a number of other os packages. amazon has released source of their changes, as they are obligated to do. maybe this thing is hackable, after all. i'm guessing amazon will not be forthcoming with hardware specs, though.