Even the most tech-savvy among us has the potential to hang onto the past for nostalgic reasons. Personally, I’ve been reluctant to adopt the idea of e-books. I still love curling up with a good book – an actual book – and feeling the paper as I turn each page. It’s what I know.
But every single time I travel, whether it’s for a quick business trip or a longer vacation, I wish I’d been an early adopter of e-readers. That one book I curl up with in bed doesn’t weigh much, but every ounce makes a difference when you’re trying to pack light and you’re forced to carry everything with you.
In short, even though this isn’t exactly true, it’s easy to make the case that travelers have always been the target market for e-readers.
Just think about it. Long before there was even an Amazon Kindle, back when e-books were still predominantly either read on laptops or on expensive e-readers from the few companies that made them, travelers were already looking for creative ways of ditching the guidebook rather than lug another heavy tome in their carry-on bag.
Round the world travelers in particular have long since given up on the idea that they would leave home with a huge pile of guidebooks for every country they planned to visit – not to mention any pleasure reading they hoped to do while on the road. Thankfully, there’s been a reliable network of “take one/leave one” libraries in hostels around the world for years, and these typically include both guidebooks and novels.
This network still exists, of course, and it remains a viable option for anyone who just doesn’t want to travel with an e-reader for whatever reason – but for those of us who want to embrace the technology of e-readers, they open up a whole world of options for long-term travelers that weren’t there before. Carry your whole library in one small device, including guidebooks for every country you might potentially visit. Add books as you go, either as you hear about a new novel by your favorite author or you change your itinerary and need a new guidebook, and your virtual library weighs no more than it did before.
Do you travel with an e-reader?
photo by TheCreativePenn