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Amazon's Kindle: Where are all the guidebooks?

by Justin Glow (RSS feed) on Jun 29th 2008 at 11:30AM

This weekend, I broke down and bought a Kindle -- Amazon's eBook reader. The benefits are obvious: the ability to store over 200 books in the on-board memory (with an expandable SD slot), E Ink for paper-like, easy-on-the-eyes reading, and instant access to thousands of titles from Amazon.com.

While the concept of an eBook reader is not new, the Kindle's brothership with the world's largest book store makes it revolutionary.

In short: this thing is a book-loving traveler's dream. No longer will you have to carry around multiple books on your next trip. If you're traveling within the U.S., simply use the Kindle's built in Sprint EVDO Internet access to order new books instantaneously; if you're traveling abroad, the Sprint connection doesn't work, but you can still order the book from any computer connected to the Internet, and transfer it to your Kindle via the included USB.

But there's one market that is bizarrely void of any Kindle coverage: guidebooks. Imagine the possibilities -- no longer lug around a thick, heavy Lonely Planet: Wherever. With the Kindle, you can buy your destination's guidebook from all the top publishers -- Lonely Planet, Fodor's, Moon, whatever -- for a fraction of the cost, and store them in one small, light, easy to use gadget. Plus, the Kindle gives you the ability to search for phrases in your entire library, so pulling up all the information from every guidebook on Ulaanbaatar, for instance, is only a few button clicks away.

How come guidebook publishers aren't taking advantage of this?

Filed under: Gear

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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Len Edgerly Jun 29th 2008 5:05PM

This is a brilliant suggestion. The only drawback for guidebooks would be the funky reproduction of photos. But all the text info on the Kindle = traveler's heaven.

Justin Glow Jun 29th 2008 5:20PM

Good point, Len... the Kindle definitely doesn't do images justice. Maps, too, would be a problem.

Dustin & Andy Jun 29th 2008 7:18PM

this is a brilliant suggestion. we were speaking of it yesterday. when will capitalism motivate these people? they should have done this a few months ago.

kindlehelper Jun 30th 2008 5:14AM

Actually there are a few travel books available for the Kindle. If you check the travel category in the Kindle store you can find them, but you will need to sort through them to find the travel guides. Here are a couple I found:

Rick Steve's Paris-2008

http://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.html?ie=UTF8&location=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.com%2FRick-Steves-Paris-2008%2Fdp%2FB0014C432Y%3Fie%3DUTF8%26s%3Ddigital-text%26qid%3D1214816471%26sr%3D1-8&tag=ereadworld-20&linkCode=ur2&camp=1789&creative=9325

Rick Steves' London 2008

http://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.html?ie=UTF8&location=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.com%2FRick-Steves-London-2008%2Fdp%2FB000YJ857W%3Fie%3DUTF8%26s%3Ddigital-text%26qid%3D1214816471%26sr%3D1-12&tag=makmononthein-20&linkCode=ur2&camp=1789&creative=9325

Brian Hollar Jul 3rd 2008 1:05AM

This is something I've wondered several times before:

http://thinkingonthemargin.blogspot.com/2007/11/more-on-amazon-kindle.html

http://thinkingonthemargin.blogspot.com/2007/10/sony-announces-new-ebook-reader.html

It seems like a perfect application -- especially if they could make them hyper-linked within the guidebook. (Click on a particular city, an item on the map, etc. to get taken to a new page.) It would make it much richer and smaller than a traditional guidebook. If implemented correctly, it could also periodically update itself and allow travelers to add comments to each destination that could be accessed through the guidebooks. There don't seem to be any technical limitations on this -- just legal and business challenges.

As someone who loves reading, travel, and technology, I hope we will see this soon.