Going by a latest announcement by the Seattle-based online retailer Amazon, the company's popular digital book reader, Kindle, has officially hit the Canadian stores; nearly two years after the device became available in the US. At present, the e-reader is available in over 160 international markets.

The $259-priced Kindle e-reader, which begins shipping to Canada, allows users to purchase and download e-books from a list of over 300,000 titles available. In addition, the Kindle enables its users to subscribe to over 90 newspapers, including the National Post, from round the globe.

Announcing the availability of the National Post on the Kindle, the paper's owner, CanWest Publishing, also added that its other leading dailies, including the Ottawa Citizen and the Vancouver Sun, will also become available on the Kindle pretty soon.

About the extensive accessibility scope that CanWest provides for its newspapers, Dennis Skulsky, the company's President and CEO said: "Whether in print, online, or on the go on mobile devices and smartphones, our quality journalism is accessible to Canadians where, when and how they want it, throughout their day."

In fact, the Kindle has been embraced by a number of newspaper and magazine publishers, who see it as a means of extending their reach to new readers, as well as to generate revenue sans the requirement to undertake high printing costs of physical copies.