Want Stephen King's latest? Buy a Kindle

"You're going to like this gadget but you're going to like books, too. It isn't like these things are in conflict." That's what author Stephen King told the audience today at the New York press conference at which Amazon launched the second version of Kindle, its e-book reader.

Kindle 2.0 is a thinner, easier-to-navigate, somewhat easier-to-read version of  Kindle 1.0. It's no cheaper, however. The price remains at $359. (See further details here.)

But if you're a truly avid Stephen King fan, there's an even more important reason to have a Kindle: It's the only way to get a copy of "Ur," King's new novella, set to release later this month to current and future Kindle owners.

Here's how King's website synopsizes "Ur" (in which a college professor buys a Kindle, with creepy results):

"Following a nasty break-up, lovelorn college English instructor Wesley Smith can't seem to get his ex-girlfriend's parting shot out of his head: 'Why can't you just read off the computer like the rest of us?' Egged on by her question and piqued by a student's suggestion, Wesley places an order for Amazon.com's Kindle eReader. The [pink?] device that arrives in a box stamped with the smile logo – via one-day delivery that he hadn't requested – unlocks a literary world that even the most avid of book lovers could never imagine. But once the door is open, there are those things that one hopes we'll never read or live through. "

King is already a committed Kindle user. At today's press conference he said that his true motivation for placing his story on Kindle was  to “get a new Kindle out of it.”