This morning, Amazon presented its second-generation wireless reading device, the Kindle2, set to officially release on February 24. Click Amazon’s photo at left to read the product details. What follow is an excerpt of today’s Publishers Weekly article,

With a media line that stretched nearly to Madison Avenue and such publishing heavyweights in attendance as Random House’s Markus Dohle and HarperCollins’s Brian Murray, Amazon unveiled the Kindle2 in an elaborate, and crowded, presentation this morning at New York’s Morgan Library. The new device is significantly slimmer than the original–about as thin as a pencil–has a text-to-speech function that can read the book out loud, and easier and improved navigation. The device also includes improved graphics and more storage–it will hold 1,500 books, Amazon chairman Jeff Bezos said, and its battery will hold a charge for two weeks. (Read the full article here.)

The  publishing industry as a whole has been monitoring, and often actively participating, in the development of such “readers” since their inception. What do you think? Will the Kindle2 be on your wish list this year?