To Kindle or Not to Kindle...

That is the question...  I have been asking myself lately.  I keep hearing about these Kindles, so I did a little research today to find out a bit more about them and I'm still not sure if I could totally replace a 'dead tree book' with an electronic one in my life, but I can see some advantages. 

Being able to download blogs to read would be great.   At the moment I have a netbook (an Acer Aspire Once that I absolutely love) that I take with me everywhere.  However I read today (here) that the latest version of the Kindle does not support wi fi internationally, so you would have to download to your pc and then transfer to your Kindle when travelling.  Strangely I also read here that it does support wifi globally...  Hhhmmm who to believe? 

At 1/3 of an inch and only 10.2 ounces you could definitely carry it around in your handbag, but it sounds a little bit flimsy to me and I would be worried about breaking it... (you wouldn't believe the things I carry in my handbag - I do like to be prepared).

I do think it would be great for taking on holiday (or in my situation taking away for a year of work rather than filling up my meagre luggage allowance with real live books).  At the moment I spend hours and hours scanning recipes into my computer so that I don't have to lug recipe books around with me... Being able to download whole recipe books to a Kindle would definately save me hours of totally boring, mindless work, but I do like the colour pictures I get on my computer.

At this stage I don't think a Kindle is on my must have list, but I am keeping an open mind.  I havent actually seen a Kindle in person yet, and none of my close friends have one, so I would be interested to hear if anyone has any advice or comments to make. 

UPDATED:

I had a request for some more information on the Kindle vs the iPad, so here is what I have found...

I gathered the above information from Kindle, Kindle DX and Apple iPad  (if you find that table hard to read, here is a link to it).  I have not actually seen either the Kindle or the iPad in person, but I am interested to find out what I can.  I understand the iPad will not begin shipping for nearly two months.  I did read somewhere when the iPad was first announced that the display screen technology will be harder on the eyes than the Kindle display screen, but I have misplaced that link. 

Here are a few links that give Kindle vs iPad comparisons (bearing in mind that the iPad has not actually started shipping yet): Kindle vs iPad Review, The Knox Student, and Five Reasons iPad isn't a Kindle Killer.

In my mind, the bottom line is that the Kindle is a dedicated e-book reader, while the iPad is multi-functional.  It really depends what you are looking for and how much you want to pay.  Personally, I am quite happy with my little netbook and am not looking for he multi-functionality provided by the iPad, so I think I would prefer a dedicated e-book reader.

Arabella Chickie in Palma de Mallorca