So what’s the Kindle like then?
Amazon recently announced that their Kindle e-books are they are outselling hardback books for the first time. If you had asked me a couple of years ago whether I would buy an e-book reader I would probably have said ‘no way!’ Reading a book is a pleasurable experience; the smell of the book, inspiring artwork on the book cover, the satisfaction of knowing you’ve almost finished a book… But having recently moved home for the 9th time in 10 years (scary stuff, huh?) I finally decided to part ways with some of my books and go digital.
So what’s the Kindle like?
The Kindle is super light and dead easy to carry around but it’s wiser to buy a case to protect the device… if you don’t fancy spending £30 on a leather cover, there are lots of cheaper alternatives to choose from on Amazon. I love the fact there are thousands of classics that can be downloaded for free!
One hand reading is surprisingly easy and makes reading much easier on a crammed Tube carriage, and it’s also dead easy to turn the pages by pressing the next/previous buttons on each side of the screen. The e-ink screen offers an amazing quality even with the bright sunlight.
Another great feature is the ability to read PDF documents directly from the device; I get sent so many decks and reports during the day, and I can finally read them on my way home!
However the Kindle is not perfect (yet)…
PDF navigation can be fiddly (text too small, not centered, having to click on pictures to enlarge them) and it would be nice to have a colour screen for illustrated books or magazines.
The browser sucks big time but then again I didn’t purchase this device to surf the net. I ended up purchasing the wi-fi only version as I didn’t think I would end up using the 3G (you can pretty much get wi-fi anywhere these days anyway).
Verdict: Highly recommended – reading the Kindle is like reading a book but it’s smaller, lighter, and you can conveniently carry your whole library in your handbag.
I’ll probably still buy the occasional hardback book; they’ll just have to be more special to deserve a space in my overflowing bookcase 
