Explore Your Kindle, Part 1

I have had a love-hate relationship with eReaders for a number of years, since I bought my very first one, an early touch screen Kobo. One reason I soon grew to despise the Kobo was that I had mistakenly expected it to be the way I would read. From then on, my library would start to move into the cloud. But I couldn’t shake my love of physical books, especially hardbacks. Then there were periodicals, and even paperbacks. I now realise that each format has its advantages. What better way to get to love your eReader than to understand what it can actually do?

Let’s be honest, eReaders are crap for research. If you are consulting thirty books on the history of the postage stamp, for example, with lots of colour plates, the eReader will be a problem. Most people, if not all, are going to use them to read books. Mainly novels, possibly nonfiction and memoirs, but they are not a research tool.

One really great thing about eReaders for fans of the historical novel is that you can get most of them for a tiny fee, if not totally free. And the historical novel is sometimes accompanied by obscure words. Just press and hold on a word to look it up in the dictionary. Great. You don’t need to keep a dictionary to hand now.

And so to what is by far and away the biggest advantage for eReaders I can see. Step forward the regular traveller or daily commuter (by public transport of course, I’m not thinking of motorists). Whether you are away on your own on business, or trying to shave a few kilos off the luggage allowance for your family holiday, the eReader is your friend. Pack a hundred books and decide which ones you will read later. Pack all kinds of genres and nonfiction, try to cover every possible mood and occasion. If money is tight, Kindle Unlimited will get you access to a lot of content (although not a great deal of premium titles) for very little, and you can cancel the subscription when you get home.

Now that you can use your eReader at any time during a flight, from locking the doors to unlocking them, they are much more useful even for short-haul flights. Unless you’re travelling from one of those ‘danger’ places listed in recent US and UK travel rules of course.

And when you get to the hotel, you can read in the dark. No need to have all those too-bright hotel lights glaring at you. Turn them all off and use the backlight on your Kindle. Even better if you are with a partner who likes to sleep early or rise late. But even if you are alone, the new lights are very kind on the eyes. The Kobo system even removes that stimulating blue light that can keep many of us from unwinding — automatically.

So in summary, don’t forget the built-in dictionary. Don’t forget to pack your Kindle with hundreds of books to reduce your airline baggage weight, and don’t forget that backlight. And don’t forget that some books, any that have changed your life or outlook, deserve to be hardbacks and on a shelf for your friends to borrow.