I love to read. But, as a full-time RV’er, I don’t like the space and weight taken up by all my books. My solution until now has been to get my books in electronic book (e-book) form and read them on my laptop. That works fine, but it isn’t the greatest if I want to read in bed, or outside under a tree. Now Amazon has the perfect solution for RV’ers who love to read – the Kindle Wireless Reading Device.
This gadget is beyond cool. First of all, it’s only a little over 5" x 7" and less than 3/4" thick. It only weighs 10.3oz, and has enough memory to hold over 200 titles at a time. But, even if you fill that up, you can move the books you’ve read to an optional SD memory card or to your computer to make room for new ones. There are currently over 100,000 book titles available and thousands of newspapers, blogs and other content as well. And, you don’t even need a computer to use it. You search all that Amazon has to offer for the Kindle right on the screen, make your choise and download it wirelessly. You can begin reading is less than a minute. You can even download and read the first chapters of a book for free, just to make sure you’re interested. You only pay if you decide to download the remainder of the book. Currently, the New York Times® Best Sellers are $9.99 each unless listed otherwise.
Another great feature are the newspapers and magazines. As an RV’er, I had given up subscriptions to magazines and newspapers because of the hassles of having them mailed to me. Since I don’t stay in one place very long, it was just too much trouble to have them follow me, and too expensive to keep forwarding them from my permanent address. Now I can subscribe to top U.S. newspapers including The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and Washington Post; and top magazines including TIME, Atlantic Monthly, and Forbes; and they’re all auto-delivered wirelessly to my Kindle. Even top international newspapers can be subscribed to and auto-delivered wirelessly. If you’re a blog reader (which you may be because you’re reading this one), you can get more than 250 top blogs from the worlds of business, technology, sports, entertainment, and politics, including BoingBoing, Slashdot, TechCrunch, ESPN’s Bill Simmons, The Onion, Michelle Malkin, and The Huffington Post; all updated wirelessly throughout the day.
The Kindle uses the same EVDO wireless technology used by the cellular network. You don’t have to search for a WiFi hotspot to receive books and updates. You can download content from anywhere you have cell phone coverage. I even use mine to read my email. You can forward your email to it so you can read it any time, anywhere you want. In fact, you can read just about anything on your Kindle. Just put it in a Microsoft Word Document and download it from your computer or forward it to your Kindle via email. It has a built-in dictionary and free wireless access to Wikipedia, the Internets largest and most comprehensive online encyclopedia. Battery life is great too. With the wireless turned on (so I can receive blog updates any time), I only have to charge it about every other day. I never turn my wireless off, but if you do, Amazon says it will go up to 10 days without a recharge.
For the RV’er who is also an avid reader, this is a must-have. No more heavy, space-consuming books in my RV – just my Kindle. Click here for more information on how to get your own Kindle.
