I’m one of those individuals who enjoys reading from the screen. In fact it is rare that I will buy a physical book or magazine any longer, and the other day I had to search for a good while to find a pen for someone who was visiting me in my office. As a result, there is no question that I’ve enjoyed using my Kindle on vacation. What I’ve discovered over the past few days, however, is that it truly is an ideal companion when traveling. There are a number of reasons for this — allow me to list a few.

Battery life. Once the plane took off, I turned off the radio in the Kindle. After all there’s no reception down here in Aruba, so it serves no purpose to have it turned on. I have read a number of books already, and the device still has three quarters of its battery life remaining. That’s pretty impressive.

The screen. I’ve got some issues with electronic paper. It refreshes too slowly, the contrast isn’t as sharp as it might be and it’s black and white. Still, the screen works just as well in bright sunlight on the beach as it does in a well lit room. No, it doesn’t have a backlight, so it is difficult to use at night. But if we’re being honest, it must be said that it is no more difficult to use at night than a regular book. Using the Kindle on the beach was a dream.

Changeable fonts. More exactly, the ability to change the size of the font is great. As the day would go on and my eyes would get tired, being able to increase the font by one size to compensate was exactly what I needed. Try doing that with a paper book.

Easy to hold and turn pages. I found that one of the nicest aspects of the Kindle is the ability to read with it propped up on your knees when sitting on a lounge chair. There’s no need to hold the book open or to turn pages. To turn the page, you simply tap the side. The DX only has controls on one side (a big mistake in my opinion), but when I wanted to use my left hand instead of my right, I simply switched the orientation of the device, putting the keyboard at the top, rather than the bottom.

Books, Books, Books. In the past when I would travel, I would bring a tremendous number of books. Since I can usually read a book a day while on vacation, and I’ve often found that at least one out of three books that I started I didn’t want to continue, I would bring ten different books on the seven-day trip. That is a lot of books to carry, and with airlines clamping down on baggage is a potential problem. The Kindle is same size and weight, whether I have one book or 500 books loaded on it. Sweet! Especially since two of the books I loaded before I left ended up having zero interest to me.

Prices. I went on a bit of a book buying spree before I left. So did my in-laws. In fact two of the books I purchased for my Kindle, they purchased as dead tree editions. I paid $8-$10 for each of my books. They paid significantly more for theirs.

One little trick that I discovered. Because I purchased this Kindle for a specific work purpose, it never occurred to me to get a proper case for it. Yes, I have a skin on it, but that won’t actually protect the device when traveling or taking it down to the beach.

I also happen to have brought a netbook with me and, as is usually the case, I brought the netbook in a Waterfield sleeve I reviewed some months ago.

Turns out that the sleeve is a perfect fit for the Kindle, and that is exactly how I have been carrying the Kindle with me this week. It’s nice when something can serve a dual purpose, and even nicer when the item is incredibly well-made, as all their products are.

In the end, I’ve enjoyed using the Kindle DX more than I expected I would. From the start I had concerns about its bigger size and increased weight. After using it for the past few days however, I have come to appreciate how much easier it is to read on this nice big screen, especially since it offers so much more text on the page. In fact, walking up from the beech just now, I saw someone using a Kindle 2 to read. It looked awfully small. Funny how quickly perspective can change!

Now if only the thing were waterproof.


Note: No Kindles were harmed in the making of this photo, which was created using the awesome iPhone app Juxtaposer.