While at the Contact conference, my 2nd Kindle died.
The trouble with a dead Kindle is it leaves you with nothing to read, because you counted on having your Kindle library available.
And having just slogged through Of Human Bondage (and it is, indeed a slog), I was up for some much lighter reading. But, noooooooooo.
My 2nd Kindle died the same way my 1st Kindle died. Fried screen.
My 1st Kindle went with me into an operating room where (I’m guessing) some piece of equipment there emitted electromagnetic forces sufficient to fry the screen – it looked like an Etch-o-Sketch melt down.
I have no idea what in the registration/art room of Contact fried my 2nd Kindle, but fry it, it did. Not quite an Etcho-o-Sketch melt down look this time; instead it is simply vertical and horizontal lines with certain graphics not willing to go away – ever.
I ran through the on-line directions on how to try to revive your Kindle, but this Kindle is dead. It “is no more”, “has ceased to be”, “bereft of life, it rests in peace.”
And it doesn’t even have lovely plumage.
Thoughts from a Fat Old Lady 
Ours just did the same, and JD replaced it with a Kobo Aura HD. He’s much happier with it. The screen/e-ink is like a Kindle, but sharper, and there is an adjustable illumination setting for reading in the dark without blinding anyone else. It also allows more formats (e-pub, mobi, html) and a mini SD card slot for storing extra books externally. The downsides so far are a lack of bookmarking options (you can’t bookmark several places in the same book; it only remembers where you last left it) and that you have to add books manually instead of over the wifi.