"Special offers"

OK, I gave up. I paid $20 to get ads for some "now playing" movie "by the author of the Twilight Saga" off my Kindle. If they were trying to get me to pay the $20, that's a very effective way to do it.
I heard from various quarters that the ads were often for useful stuff and were things you might want to buy, but in the week that I had them on, the ads were either not applicable to me or for stuff that varied between irritating and embarrassing to have sitting on my device.

I might root it now so I can put my own screens on it. EDIT: actually the default Kindle screens are very attractive. I'm fine with it the way it is.

Book finished

The Future: Six drivers of global change by Al Gore

An impressively well researched and well thought out book. Finished it way sooner than I thought I would since fully half of the book is notes and bibilography. I think well worth reading. I gave it 5/5 simply for its importance.