Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos is doing everything he can to promote the new $399 Kindle electronic book and magazine reader, appearing on The Charlie Rose Show Monday night and the cover of Newsweek magazine. Meanwhile, Google News is currently showing more than 500 articles on the 10-ounce device.

Jeff Bezos

I just listened to Charlie Rose's interview with Bezos and jotted down a few notes. (Sorry, the video was not yet available on the Charlie Rose site. Update: The video is now up.) Bezos noted that the initial inventory sold out in five and a half hours, though the company hopes to quickly replenish stocks in the coming days. (That is also a topic on the Kindle discussion board.)

Bezos said publishers have embraced the Kindle, noting that it could help them avoid the guess work that goes into an initial print run for a book. He also said "books never go out of stock" in the electronic format, but added that the toughest customers for the device will be the heavy readers "who have a lifelong love affair with books."

Bezos skirted the question about the similarity to the iPod, saying that books are harder to digitize and represent an entirely different set of problems. And he said that the device could help bring back the serial novel -- similar to Charles Dickens' writings -- in which an author could charge a subscription for each installment.

Amazon is not going to stop selling physical books any time soon, but Bezos said that "it doesn't make any sense to me that printing our books on dead trees is the final evolution of books."

Rose also asked where the Kindle ranked in terms of the other achievements that Bezos has accomplished with Amazon. He responded: "What could be more meaningful than trying to improve the book? They are at the core of civilization."

The interview shifted gears to more general questions about Amazon.com and the Internet business. Bezos said the Internet is still very much in the early stages of development, adding that the fact that people refer to "Internet" companies as a separate group helps prove his point. He discussed the three key business efforts at Amazon -- the consumer business, the seller business (now more than 30 percent of units sold through the site) and the software and developer business (Amazon Web services.)

He said consumers are becoming more informed and the days of businesses relying on uninformed customers for a portion of their profit stream are over. He also described the two or three day isolation retreats that he utilizes once a quarter in order to brainstorm big ideas.

He also talked about why Amazon.com doesn't spend much on TV advertising, saying that if you build a great product or service "people will talk about it and they will tell their friends."

He said about half of Amazon's business is outside the U.S., noting the huge growth in China and how they use bicycle messengers to deliver products in major cities since the transportation network is not developed. Also, he said credit cards are not commonly used in China, so the bicycle messengers typically receive cash payments from Amazon customers at delivery.

Rose asked why Bezos needed 200,000 acres of land in Texas for his space travel company, Blue Origin. Bezos replied: "When you are building rockets and testing rockets, it is nice to have a little buffer." He then described his passion for space, adding that he thinks it can be a sustainable business venture. But he then joked about the very long-term outlook of the startup space company, saying that the people who invested in Amazon.com would be "horrified" about Blue Origin.