Travelling a lot recently, (France UK, Spain), I am amazed at the number of people who use them. I have a basic one which I love. I still buy books, but it's so convenient when on the move. Husband has the kindle fire , very versatile if you want apps etc as well as books, and it is really a mini computer. It's also quite heavy. As mentioned in a previous post, the more basic models are great for just reading!

I have to say that I was sceptical too and then I won one! My kindle is the original basic one and very lightweight & only costs £69 now. I also bought a very good case for it for about £7 from Amazon. Anyway, I love it! I find that I actually read more now because it's so convenient and I have a good supply of different types of books sitting there. I also download the free samples (normally first chapter) of any book that I hear about or read a good review. Then when I run out, I read one of them & buy if I enjoy it.

As for the original question about reading on the beach, unfortunately I haven't yet had the opportunity but I'll be in PP for a few days in July with a girlfriend so I hope to try it out at Formentor! And once you have charged it, it lasts for days especially if you turn the wifi off (just put in Flight Mode under settings), so just make sure you have downloaded your books onto your Kindle before travelling and you won't need wifi at all.

The newer 'paperwhite' as they call it is much better.
I bought one for my wife a while ago.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B...ag=wordlink-21

The battery last ages and is easy to read and it uses the same usb charging lead as my camera and sat nav which is useful :)

The touchscreen is a bit 'old technology' compared to modern mobile phones although is OK for reading stuff.

My mum (a few years past retirement age) has the colour kindle fire HD and she is addicted to it :D
Wi-fi is now a requirement everywhere she goes... (needed as the colour kindle is like a giant android phone without the phone calls ability, all apps and internet etc)

Thanks, Mark - I'm sure you are right - I am a bit of a Luddite when it comes to technology! I think it is the screen which put me off as I am addicted to my IPod, IPad, IPhone... but it's just always annoyed me that it's impossible to read my Kindle at night (I do have the bedside lamp switched on by the way!) I still think an actual book can never be improved upon - it's a format which has survived for many hundreds of years with little alteration along the way, which says something about how user-friendly it is - but I can see that for holidays/journeys the Kindle offers something different.

For your ipad remember that you can install a free app that syncs your kindle account between the kindle, Amazon and the ipad so you can read anything on any of them.

Amazon.co.uk: Kindle for iPad--read Kindle ebooks on your iPad

I use the android app and it works well ( dont have an ipad here)
Amazon.co.uk: Kindle for Android--read Kindle ebooks on your Android device

search the app store from your device for 'kindle' and you will find it.

That might help with the reading in the dark problem and its a good way to share books within the same family on different devices etc.

I brought my Kindle Paperwhite to PP this week...read it on the beach...all brilliant. Had about 10 books loaded on, a lot of which were free to download as well! I still love books but prefer space for bags & flipflops more!!!