Travel Tech: Will e-Readers Transform Travel?

Text by Keith Rutowski; Photography courtesy of Amazon

You're preparing for a grueling, 14-hour flight to India for a tiger safari. A shrewd traveler, you know it's going to take more than an iPod to get you through this one. And besides, you've been avoiding that bedside stack of literary classics for too long. There's only one problem: Your carry-on bag is nearly filled to capacity. Moments before you abandon your hopes of plowing through The Brothers Karamazov, you suddenly remember your new Kindle 2, the latest e-reader available to consumers. The clouds part and for a moment all is right in the world. Slipping the e-reader in where it fits in, you're on your way with not one, but several of your 300-plus-page favorites in tow.

Yes, what was once another sci-fi fantasy is now a market reality, and it may just be the future of books. E-readers have come a long way since they emerged a decade ago, but the obvious benefits remain the same. Most now incorporate e-Ink, which produces crisp images mimicking the experience of reading type set on paper. However, the difference maker is still the fact that, where carrying an entire personal library on vacation might have been a bit of a struggle, e-readers have made it possible to tote more than 1,000 books with you. If you run out, there's technology available to wirelessly download more from wherever you are—imagine downloading several guidebooks en route during your trip of a lifetime?

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