Did you see that Amazon have started advertising the UK version of their Kindle? That’s right, a new version that’s a little more compact than the original, and quite a bit cheaper to boot.

I don’t know about you, but I’ve already decided that I’ll be getting myself one of these later this year, and I’ll probably be going for the £149 3G version. The great thing is the 3G comes free from Vodafone, so no monthly charges, definitely a convinience I’m looking forward to.

Why a kindle?

I was quite a skeptic (or is that sceptic? I always choose the wrong one..) when the kindle first came out, I love my paper books and the thought of reading something on a thin screen really didn’t appeal to me at all. It seemed to take away the romance of opening a new book, turning pages, and the satisfying slamming-shut of a completed read. However, I’ve come to think that having the ability to carry around all my favourite books and be able to dip into any book that takes my fancy after it downloads in a ridiculously short amount of time might just be enough to sway me towards a Kindle. That’s not to say that I wouldn’t still buy a ridiculous amount of ‘real’ books, but this time I might just buy the digital version first/alongside.

The benefits for holidays & long trips speak for themselves, too, I’m sure my back would appreciate carrying around just 250g of Kindle as opposed to kilograms worth of books. The last time I went away I think I ended up taking 4 hefty paperbacks, and buying another whilst I was there. Helllooo little kindle, you’re the answer to my dreams! I also tend to take oh-so-many books and then just not really feel like reading most of them, having access to as many books as I like would be wonderous.

The e-ink screen of the Kindle means that the visual appearance isn’t too far removed from on-paper print, and they’ve also improved this functionality with the new versions (better contrast, sharper fonts etc etc). And unlike other new technology that people assumed would take the place of the kindle (read, iPad), the screen features super anti-glareness (erm… is there a better word for that?) so reading outside & in high sunlight wouldn’t be an issue. Win! Battery life on the kindle lasts a massive 1 month, too.

I mentioned the free 3G, but there’s also wi-fi capability meaning even fast book download time. With a new experimental web-kit based browser in the new versions, this could lead to all manner of free & easy to access information straight through your kindle. Oh and there’s access to wikipedia’s database on the kindle, too, which for someone who’s always like ‘Oh I wonder who..’ or ‘I wish I had my laptop to check..’ would be a great additional feature.

This post may read as though I’m working for Amazon but I am genuinely excited about the release of the UK Kindle, but for the sake of transparency I will just say that the links to the kindle pages on amazon from within this article do have my amazon associates link attached (thus, commission if you click through & buy or whatever). I can’t wait to show you all when I get mine! Exciting!