Electronic books, or e-books, have been around for several years now but they have yet to seize the imagination - or the wallets - of the masses. That may be changing.

Last Friday, TV host Oprah Winfrey brought Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos onto her show to demo and discuss Kindle, the e-book reader  that is marketed by the Internet retailer.

Ms. Winfrey, whose imprimatur has been known to lift obscure authors to the best-seller lists, called the Kindle "amazing." She gushed about how she received a Kindle as a present last summer and how it had changed her life.

Members of the audience each received a Kindle as a present as well and some broke into tears. "I'm really not a gadget person at all, but I have fallen in love with this thing," she said.

Mr. Winfrey talked about sending a question through Kindle about when the leaves would be changing in North Carolina and received a response from a live person. "It's fantastic!"  she declared excitedly.

Amazon is offering $50 off the regular $359.95 price of the Kindle until November 1 to buyers who enter a discount code of "OPRAHWINFREY" while placing their order.

Some analysts estimate that Amazon has sold some 300,000 units of  the Kindle, but Amazon has declared those numbers much too high without revealing actual figures. Surely Mr. Bezos is hoping that the Oprah effect will boost sales.

The Kindle enables owners to download newspapers and magazines as well as more than 190,000 books using Sprint's EvDO 3G service. It is not yet available in Europe. Kindle is not the only e-book reader available. Sony has been selling the PRS-505 for several years. It retails at $299 and is often discounted.