When I travel, the weight of my books and magazines is more than the weight of all the rest of my stuff put together. I’ve stopped carrying guidebooks (why do they make them so fat and heavy!?), I just photocopy the relevant pages; but what about my books?
I’m currently reading Shantaram. It’s an A5, 1140 page book, so heavy that I refuse to lug it around on the metro, let alone a trip. If not for the size, I would have finished it by now.
The solution to that? Maybe Kindle — the latest wireless e-reader on the market. Produced by Amazon, although bigger and more expensive than the Sony e-reader, on it you can buy from a choice of 90,000 books (Sony allows 20,000) — without the need of a computer or Internet connection; you can read national and international newspapers, and can subscribe to 250 of the top blogs for $1 a month per blog. It holds up to 200 titles, the battery lasts 3-weeks and is recharged in 2-hours.
I’m not very tech savvy, but if it will help me not compromise on my reading material when I travel, I’m willing to invest. Reading a book with it physically in your hands has it’s own glory, but that’s what I said about newspapers too — now I only read them online, it’s just a matter of getting used to I suppose.
But, I still have a problem: Kindle was sold out in 5 1/2 hours of its release (November 2007). Now there is a waiting list but they will not ship outside the US. Darn!