If you’re a reader and are looking for a way to feed your desire for new literature without consuming the Amazon rainforest, then an electronic reader like Amazon’s Kindle could be a great solution for you. And just in time—it has recently been reduced in price from US$359 to US$299. That’s even more affordable than the original Kindle 1 (the new price is for the Kindle 2—Amazon’s most recent release of their e-reader).

We’ve already talked about the virtues of e-paper: it requires the cutting of no trees, is light on energy consumption, can be used hundreds, if not thousands of times, and more. The reduction in price is great news for green readers.

This move is likely due to the acquisition of E-ink by Prime View International—the two companies responsible for Kindle’s key technologies. Now that they’re working together, the economies of scale are kicking in making it more affordable to produce. However, the sinking economy probably has as much to do with it—a lower price will stimulate sales in a flat economy.

The Kindle is also facing more competition in the e-reader market. The Samsun Papyrus and Fujitsu’s FLEPia are both competing for their market share of the e-reader industry. Although the Papyrus has yet to be released, it is supposed to be an A5-sized e-ink device larger than the Kindle with a touch screen. Speculation is that it will cost about US$300. The FLEPia on the other hand, which could have a pricetag of $1,000, will have a color touch screen and promises to run Windows CE 5.0 so that it can read books in Word, Excel, Powerpoint, PDF, TXT, or JPEG format.