In the UK a vacuum cleaner is very often called a hoover as Hoover, the brand, made one of the first popular domestic vacuum cleaners and although today people buy all different makes of vacuum cleaners they still refer to them as a hoover. In the same vein an Amazon Kindle looks like becoming the alternative name for an e-reader as generally people already seem to be using the Kindle name when they are talking about an e-reader and most people understand that's what they are talking about.

I have to say that I never actually thought I would take to a "Kindle" because I love books. I love the feel of a book in my hand and to flick through the pages. I also prefer to read from a page than a screen. A screen is fine for articles and browsing but not for reading pages of text. Probably I'm not alone here because many people do seem to have a much shorter attention span when reading on a computer than they do when given a book or newspaper to read.

Like most people I have bought my fair share of e-books and the upside of this is getting instant access from anywhere in the world, the downside, for me, is that if I wanted to read it I would have to print it off otherwise I would never finish it. I used to think that an e-reader would be like reading from a computer screen and that I would end up buying a hard copy of any book that i was enjoying so I could then read it properly. I was wrong, I found no problem with reading from the Kindle, somehow it felt just like I was reading from a book and it had the added advantage of being able to alter the size of the text to my own preference which is a real benefit.

I also feared the Kindle in some way because, as I said before, I love books and thought that if everyone owned a Kindle it would kill the book industry and, although I am just one person and myself alone would make very little difference, I didn't want to contribute to the downfall of something I love. Now I see it more as an evolution phase.

For me, a Kindle isn't going to replace reference and cookery books, these types of books need to be flicked through and browsed. If you want to try something different for your supper you need to look at the pictures to see what takes your fancy. Art books need to be looked at in their full glory not through the limitations of screen colours and there are many mire examples.

However using the Kindle for novels is a different story altogether. This is really what they are intended for. It's smaller and lighter than a book so much easier to carry around and you never lose your place. You get to download your books immediately, no waiting for it to arrive in the post, and if you have the 3G version you can do this from almost anywhere. You can usually download the first couple of chapters to see if you like it before you go ahead and buy the whole book. The Kindle is also much easier to carry around than a novel, if you're going on holiday you can take as many books as you want without having to worry about weight limitations and space. Well that's not completely true you there is a limit of about 1400 books but that would have to be one really long trip!