My new kindle

I'll admit to being a bit of a laggard when it comes to reading.

I really really like books.  You know how people sometimes ask you what you do in your spare time and you're supposed to say something quirky and exciting like "I'm an amateur pole vaulter" or "I'm a saxophonist in a jazz band" or "I make my own clothes".  My honest answer is "I read".

In contrast my husband doesn't even own any paper.  So he's been really into me getting a kindle, my friend who is also a big traveler (and who has an awesome blog here) is a total advocate, and then for Christmas I got one from my in-laws.  So it was time to give it a shot.

First step was buying a cover because I really really like to open a book.  Second step was to turn off the wi-fi because I want my book to give me all its attention, not to be scanning for signals.  So then I had what I thought was a reasonable device to take on this trip.

Features I love:

Percentage completed tracker: I'm a little bit competitive and a little bit of a numbers nerd (like I spend the whole time on the treadmill calculating what fraction of my workout is complete) so the little bar at the bottom that tells you how much of the book you have read is just awesome.

Weight: I bring a minimum of three paperbacks with me on every trip and that can really weigh a girl down.  I have dozens of books on my kindle and it weighs less than a regular book.

Things I'm not so into:

The airlines make you shut your kindle off during take off and landing!  THIS IS PRIME READING TIME.  Before they give you your headsets to watch bad movies, there is nothing to do BUT read.  And I"m sorry but international flights are going to have to carry English publications other than Time magazine if I'm every going to be convinced to take something when the flight attendant comes around.

Anyway, we'll see if this becomes a travel necessity.