Paperless travel
I’m back! I returned last night from my annual summer vacation – this year we were off to Washington state to visit family. What made this trip stand out from the others, however, is that it was virtually paperless for me. Unlike trips in the past, I packed no print books and went all digital.
Before departing last Thursday I loaded my Sony Reader PRS-500 with 3 novels. That’s on top of the various short fiction I’m already reading on my iPhone via the Stanza ebook app. I was actually a little hesitant not bringing any print books with me. This seemed to be more a reflection of my habit to weigh my shoulder bag down with print books than with any issues I have reading ebooks.
My only real concern about only bringing my Sony Reader was the battery life. I couldn’t think of anything worse than being in the middle of a flight and have the battery die on me, with nothing else to read. But those concerns turned out to be unfounded. I had charged the battery up before leaving last week, and I’m still reading from my PRS-500 on that same charge.
Having my iPhone turned out to be great as well. Since my iPhone is my PDA, ebook reader, iPod, gaming device, and oh yeah, I think there’s a cell phone built in there somewhere, I always have it on me and ready to go. So when I had a few minutes to spare at the airport it was easy to whip the iPhone out and get a few pages of reading in on the Philip K. Dick short story I was immersed in at the time.
The biggest advantage to ebooks vs. print books while traveling: My bag was significantly lighter. In fact, the heaviest item I carried throughout the whole trip was my Macbook, which is still pretty light compared to a bag full of books.
