I know I'm not the only one thinking Amazon.com's e-book reader Kindle sounds more like kindling, something that should be burned, rather than something that ignites ideas and revolutions — a problem that a good naming myth, well told, will not easily overcome. Fortunately for Bezos, Charlie Rose can't help but interrupt his guests and provide the answers to his own questions. In an interview, the CEO fumbled through the origin of the e-book reader's name. But why is Jeff Bezos completely failing to tell the true, compelling, and literary origins of the Kindle name?

Kindle's definition "to ignite" is straightforward enough, but starting fires in the context of books? Fahrenheit 451, maybe, and we're hardly the first to point that out. But there just happens to be a famous quote using kindle and books in the same context that states exactly Bezos's vision ... by the 18th century philosopher and satirist François-Marie Arouet, better known as Voltaire:

The instruction we find in books is like fire. We fetch it from our neighbors, kindle it at home, communicate it to others, and it becomes the property of all.

Certainly, this quote could have inspired the name. Wouldn't Amazon be better served by invoking the highly-esteemed and quotable philosopher as the inspiration for their device in explaining Kindle to its literary audience? At least they'd have someone else to blame ... and a dead guy who wrote a lot of books, at that.

So why no Voltaire tributes? Either Amazon wanted to avoid associating the only-available-in-America device with the hated French, or Jeff Bezos hoped to keep all of the credit to himself. I'll assume the latter, and blame Bezos for the awkwardly named Kindle.