Kindle at the beach

Ever since it was released last year, I'd been considering buying an Amazon Kindle. I had a few concerns, including the price and wondering if the next generation would be coming out anytime soon. But I finally gave in to the temptation a couple of weeks ago when I was getting ready for a week's vacation at the beach.

I always look forward to having some good quality time for reading at the beach. I pick out a new book or two that I really want to dig into during the week. But the book I really wanted to read this year, Team of Rivals, weighs in at 944 pages, and I wasn't looking forward to lugging that three blocks to and from the beach each day. So, the time was right to get a Kindle.

I hesitated at first, wondering how I'd feel about taking a $359 device to ocean's edge with all the potential dangers that go with the territory (including rogue waves and dropping it in the sand). But I decided to take the risk.

What a good decision! I was very happy with the Kindle during the week and it will go on my list of the best purchases I've made. You can read the general pros and cons of the Kindle elsewhere (my only substantial complaint is how easy it is to accidentally hit the page buttons), but I want to share why I think the Kindle is great for beach reading (because when I was considering the purchase, I wished there was such a post):

• The screen is very easy to read in bright sunlight. I was a little worried that it would hard to see like a typical backlit LCD screen like on a digital camera, but the E Ink display is as easy to read as a printed book page even with sunglasses on.
• It's light and compact for carrying. I had 30 books with me on the beach and it only added 10 ounces to my backpack.
• It was wonderful having so many choices available so when my mood changed, I could switch to something different. Before leaving, I had converted some of the PDF eBooks to mobi format (using the free Mobipocket Creator) and transferred them to the Kindle using the USB connection.
• I could choose what I wanted to read once I got there. The first morning sitting in my chair at water's edge, I used the built-in EVDO connection to preview (first chapter free) and then purchase Team of Rivals. It was downloaded to the device in about a minute and I got started reading. Later in the week I was ready to take a break from that book and I previewed, purchased, and downloaded Blowback and then switched back and forth between the two the rest of the week.
• The built-in dictionary was great for looking up unfamiliar words while I was reading.
• The built-in highlighting and note taking features made it easy to mark sections without needing to carry a pen and notebook.
• The built-in EVDO Internet connection was so handy. I could look up things as they came to mind. I could check email. I could check the weather report. This is so much better than trying to do this on a cell phone because 1) I could actually see the screen in the sun, 2) it's on a decent-sized screen, 3) it has a better keyboard, and 4) it's free.
• I was able to have a collection of my personal documents and notes with me. I'm working on writing a book and a screenplay and I converted my outlines and notes to plain text format and copied them to the Kindle and could then access them when I needed them and could even make further notes using the Kindle.
• And I must say the beach is a place where the (currently free) NowNow service really shines. A trivia question came up in conversation and I wasn't able to quickly find an answer using an Internet search. So, I submitted the question to NowNow, and fifteen minutes later I had three responses from real people pop onto the Kindle (two were helpful, one not so much).

So yes, I think the Kindle is great for the beach (and I'm still very much enjoying it now that I'm back home). I managed to get through the week without dropping it in the sand. But I did clean it when I got home using LCD screen cleaner, a lint-free cloth, a cotton swab (for the scroll bar area), and compressed air. It still looks like new.