I’m going on vacation…and my Kindle is staying home

I’m going on vacation…and my Kindle is staying home

Yes, I’m going to be gone part of this week. I am trying to write ahead some, and I won’t have zero access…but I may not respond to your comments as quickly as usual.

Oh, and burglars, my house won’t be empty while I’m not there. 🙂

The interesting thing here is that I’m not bringing my Kindle.

Well, I’m not bringing one of my Kindles…um, make that two…actually, it’s more like four…sigh. 😉

I’m going to bring my Kindle Fire, but none of my RSKs (Reflective Screen Kindles).

My RSKs were such a transformation for travelling! In the old days, I would literally pack an extra suitcase just for paperbooks…and I think I’ve always bought books on vacation. I’d come back with more than I had when I left.

The RSK was certainly nice on a plane!

This time, though, I don’t want to bring both. I want my Fire more, and it’s (hopefully) not a ten-hour travel situation.

I’m also finding that I can read for fairly extended periods on my Fire.

In a weird way, that makes me feel like a traitor.

Why?

It shouldn’t…while I have defended and celebrated the use of reflective screen technology for long form reading, there really isn’t anything…evil about reading on a backlit screen.

Certainly, there are some disadvantages to it…shorter battery charge life, hard to read in bright light (not a problem on an airplane or in a hotel room…and I’m going to Boston, where I doubt sunshine will be my biggest weather worry in March). For me, though, I’m not finding eye strain or difficulty sleeping after reading in bed. I happen to have just had my eyes tested…they are healthy. 🙂

I’ll have a better idea of whether or not I’ll miss the RSKs on the trip, well, after it is over.

I did want to give you the heads-up. If you want to stay on top of breaking Kindle news (no, no…not news about broken Kindles…I hope), there are several options.

You can keep your eye on the

Amazon Kindle forum

You can check other Kindle blogs.

However, I probably will be posting to this one…I’ll work out some way. I don’t feel like I can type well enough on my Kindle Fire, and we aren’t bringing a laptop, but I may get into the business center once or twice a day. I don’t want it to take away from the family time, though…that comes first. 🙂

Update:

I thought you might be interested in some of the things I’ve put on my Fire for the trip. It’s hard to predict how much time I’ll have…although I do have two cross country plane trips. I may be downloading more while I’m there, or I may have leftovers…we’ll see:

Newsstand

• I have three issues of National Geographic I’ve downloaded from my subscription (not all are completely unread, though)
• I’ll download an issue of Analog and one of Fantasy & Science Fiction from subscriptions

Other magazines

From my Zinio subscription to Fortean Times, I’ll have two issues. From my Entertainment Weekly, I’ll probably just have one (I keep up with that). I’ll also have a PDF of a recent Fate from my subscription.

Books

I have one I’ve borrowed from the KOLL (Kindle Owners Lending Library): Aliens in America by William J. Birnes (I know Bill slightly from some work we’ve done together with a non-profit).

• Eight Hundred Leagues on the Amazon by Jules Verne
• Intentions by Oscar Wilde
• How We Decide by Jonah Lehrer
• We Bought a Zoo by Benjamin Mee
• My Gun Has Bullets by Lee Goldberg
• Cats Most Wanted by Alexandre Powe Allred
• Better Living Through Bad Movies by Scott Clevenger & Sherri Zollinger

Music and other audio

• I have a playlist of “upbeat music” I use in classes…it’s 68 songs.
• I downloaded two podcasts of Len Edgerly’s excellent The Kindle Chronicles
• I downloaded several Old Time Radio shows from RadioLovers.com. I really like those on the plane…that included The Avenger

Video

Just out of curiousity, I may try connecting to GoGo internet on the plane, which would give me a lot of streaming options. I also downloaded some public domain stuff from Archive.org:

• The Ghoul (the original “lost” Karloff movie)
• The Disappearance of Flight 4127
• A Tales of Tomorrow TV episode

Docs

We hve our travel information (flight and hotel).

Apps

I wouldn’t say I’ve downloaded anything especially for the trip. I’ll probably play

• Dabble
• Angry Birds
• LineRunner

and I may use some other apps, like Tonido.

This post by Bufo Calvin originally appeared in the I Love My Kindle blog.