Whether you travel the Southcentral USA by plane, train or automobile, you always seem to wind up with time on your hands. If you’re like me, you hate to feel you’re wasting time. None of us seem to have enough of it, these days. Meet the traveler’s new best friend, the Amazon Kindle reading device. If you’re not familiar with it, the Kindle is simply a convenient way to carry books with you and read them any time, any place. That means you can take dozens of books with you when you travel. Just turn it on, and download your favorite travel guides or any of thousands of e-books, magazines or newspapers that you can buy on Amazon.com.

Kindle is also perfect for the armchair traveler. If time or budget doesn’t allow you to travel, just download a book about some destination you’ve always wanted to visit. It’s a very cost-effective way to enjoy learning about the people and places you hope to travel to some day.

The Kindle is about the size of a paperback book, bigger than most paperback fiction and smaller than a Dummies book. Just right to fit into a large purse, briefcase or carry-on tote. That means when you’re settled into your seat and ready to read, your Kindle is ready to. Just turn it on, select your book, and you’re on your way. The screen is not back-lit and that’s great most of the time, but you’ll need one of those little battery-powered reading lights to use your Kindle in the dark.

Kindle comes with its own cover, charging cord and USB cable for downloading e-books and documents that you have on your own computer. This is really handy, if you must take work with you on vacation or you’re actually traveling on the job. Just remember to keep it charged, which really isn’t a big deal. It charges quickly and gives a lot of reading time between charges.

One really great feature is that the Kindle allows you to connect wirelessly to Amazon.com from almost anywhere, at no cost to you, select a book, use your Amazon account to pay for it and download it immediately. So if you forget, or just don’t have time before your trip, to download your latest must-read, it’s no problem. When you’re ready, Kindle will get it for you. Well, you do have to turn on the wireless connection and press a few keys, but it is so easy.

Have you ever been able to test-drive a book? With Kindle you can. Many of the available books will allow you to download a sample of a few pages or sometimes a whole chapter. That way, if you aren’t familiar with a hot new book, you can see if you like the author’s writing style, before you buy it or put it on your wish list.

The one big disadvantage and the only one as far as I am concerned, is the cost. But, if Kindle is out of your price range, tell your significant others how much you really need it. Perhaps it will show up as a Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, birthday, anniversary and Christmas gift all rolled into one. That’s what happened to me and I love my Kindle.

Buy the Amazon Kindle from Amazon.com

Buy the Mighty Bright Light from Amazon.com