As you may recall, I invested in a Kindle prior to my travels. Now that I've been on the road for three weeks, I thought I'd share my thoughts on using the device.
The benefits
I have to be completely up front and say I love using it. It is so lightweight and thin, that it takes up hardly any room in my bag.
I have used it in all kinds of conditions: on boats, planes and trains (I can't read on buses or in cars); in waiting rooms (for boats, planes and trains); in parks and gardens in strong sunlight; and lying in bed. Occasionally I have had to slightly alter the angle of the screen to avoid the glare of light bulbs, but for the most part I have not had a problem reading the screen in a variety of light conditions.
The device is easy to hold, and I've become accustomed to only needing one hand. I've even used it propped up on a table and just pressed the button whenever I've wanted to get to the next page. Perfect, especially if you are eating breakfast or having a coffee!
I've loved being able to have a smallish library at my fingertips, because I've juggled various books at once depending on my mood.
The big plus? Having the 1,032-page Lonely Planet Guide to China loaded onto my Kindle. It saved about a kilo in my luggage!
I've also been able to read a selection of brief city guides I downloaded in PDF form from the Travelex website. These have provided excellent overviews of various destinations.
In terms of battery life, I've been using the device constantly for three weeks and have not yet had to charge it.
The negatives
I've found it awkward to find things in the Lonely Planet guide using the search facility, because it just throws up so many results. For example, search for "Hangzhou" and it will list every single time the word is mentioned in the book, when, ideally, I just want to know what chapter focuses on this particular city. With a traditional book, I'd just flick through until I found what I wanted.
I've also found it problematic not knowing when I'm nearing the end of a chapter. Personally, I like being able to use chapter breaks as natural breaks to stop reading, but if you don't know where the next chapter lies you can't really do this.
The device does let you know what percentage of the book you have read, but, as I found when reading a non-fiction book, this can be slightly deceptive. For instance, when I read a non-fiction book about China, the actual text only comprised 60% of the book, the rest was made up of the index and appendices. It wasn't a huge problem, but I felt slightly ripped off that the book finished much sooner than I expected!
Because the Kindle is regarded as an electronic device, you can't use it on planes during take-off and landing. Fortunately, I'd been tipped off about this beforehand, so I've been carting around a traditional book (Emile Zola's Ladies Delight) just for these moments, although I've tended to just read the in-flight magazines or duty-free brochures at these times.
Finally, having all my reading material in eBook format means I have been unable to swap books with fellow travellers. This has been slightly frustrating, especially as one of the girls in my tour group is a bit of a book fiend.
The Kindle is no substitute for my love of traditional books, but it is proving itself an invaluable device for life on the road.
