Amazon's new Kindle Touch is the only ‘book’ to take on holiday this summer

The gadget is the ideal space-saver for bookish travellers, says Rosamund Urwin, who recommends some of the best new reads
Amazon Kindle Touch 3G. Photo: AP
Rosamund Urwin13 June 2012

It was a brave strategy on the part of Amazon: lend its new Kindle to the office luddite to review. A luddite who loves books — the smell, the feel, the way they look — and hates nothing more than staring at a screen. A member of the London Library, no less.

Yet, somehow, I grew fond of the Kindle Touch. Well, after a week of it sitting there, er, untouched as I reviewed an as-yet-unpublished book. But when I started using it — to read Liz Moore’s enjoyable novel, Heft — I had to admit its brilliance.

The two biggest selling points are spectacularly obvious: it is tiny and light, making it perfect for taking on holiday, and it doesn’t feel as though you are looking at a screen. There’s no glare and my eyes didn’t ache after using it as they do after hours in front of a computer. The battery life is also impressive: I only charged it once (at the start) in the two weeks I had it; other reviewers reckon you should get a whole month of use out of a full battery.

That said, I have played with the ordinary Kindles of early-adopters (my parents), and I suspect that — unless you are a total tech-head — you won’t find enough reason to upgrade. The touchscreen is very responsive, but the keyboard (which can be used for writing notes in books as well as searching the store) can be slow to react.

I was sad to send it back. In part because I am already close to enacting a “one in, one out” policy for my personal library. But I’ll miss it most on my next holiday. Last summer I dragged eight books for a week-long trip and got through them all — and it would be blissful to have that extra space in my suitcase.

BEST OF THE BEACH E-BOOKS

Bared to You by Sylvia Day, £2.49

One of the first of a deluge of knicker tickler novels being pitched as “the new Fifty Shades of Grey”. Our hero is Gideon Cross whose hips “lunge in a measured tempo” to steal heroine Eva’s heart. You get the gist.

End this Depression Now! by Paul Krugman, £11.39

Krugman is a US public intellectual loved by the Left, but little listened to by Capitol Hill. In this lively polemic, he makes a powerful case against austerity.

Bring Up the Bodies by Hilary Mantel, £9.99

After Wolf Hall, an account of Thomas Cromwell’s rise to power, Mantel moves onto Anne Boleyn’s fall. By now, Henry VIII is the jowly king of childhood history lessons, seeking a means to ditch Boleyn and get his male heir.

The Age of Miracles by Karen Thompson Walker, £6.99

Thompson Walker’s debut sparked a fierce bidding war among publishers. It is an intriguing tale of a girl living in a world falling apart as the Earth’s rotation slows.

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