The Amazon Kindle changed my life! As an American who is avid reader, living in Mexico provides me with limited options for acquiring books in English. An international version just became available, but my Kindle 2 is a little older so I have to shop for books from my laptop. I simply connect my Kindle via USB to transfer my purchases. After being short on books, this hardly feels like a hardship.

When I travel to the US and use the “whispernet” free Internet service, it performs reasonably well, but is on the slow side. Kindle books are less costly than their paper versions, though you’re likely to buy in greater quantity. Saving trees is another worthy advantage to using a Kindle. Blogs, magazines, and newspapers are also available, and you can send documents to a special email address to have them converted to a format that can be read on your Kindle.

The built-in dictionary is a wonderful feature, and the interface is easy to use. I sorely miss it when I read the occasional book on paper. You can also highlight passages and make notes. The ability to easily change font sizes is useful. The no-glare screen is easy to read, but a built-in light of some sort would be a great addition.

You can use earphones to listen to MP3 music files that you load onto the Kindle from your computer. There’s a text-to-speech feature with a stilted computer voice. It isn’t much like listening to a book on tape but it still beats trying to read while driving. The Amazon Kindle has an impressive battery life for plenty of reading between recharges. Paper books simply don’t measure up after life with a Kindle