Best Tools for Reading on the Road
This began as a list of accessories for the Kindle 2, a device from 2009. The e-reader turned out to be one of the genuinely great pieces of travel technology, and the case for it has only got stronger.
Why an e-reader still beats a phone or tablet for this: e-ink is readable in direct sunlight, which is where a lot of holiday reading happens, and the battery lasts weeks rather than hours. It also does one thing, which is the point. A book on a tablet competes with everything else on the tablet.
What to look for:
- A front light, which did not exist on the Kindle 2 and is the biggest single improvement since. Reading in a bunk without a torch, or on a night bus, without lighting up the carriage.
- Waterproofing if you read at the beach or in the bath. Now common and genuinely useful.
- Support for the formats your library uses. This is the practical one: public library lending through apps like Libby works on most e-readers and is the cheapest reading you will ever do.
Load it before you go. The obvious thing people forget. Buying a book over hotel wifi at 11pm is a bad experience, and some titles are geo-restricted in ways that bite abroad.
The paper argument, which is not silly: a paperback needs no charge, survives sand, can be left in a hostel for the next person and picked up again from the shelf. On a short trip it is often the better choice, and the swap shelf is one of the small pleasures of travelling.
Part of the guide to gadgets and power.