I got an Amazon Kindle 3G for Christmas and I really don’t think that I have talked about it enough. In fact, I haven’t talked about it here on A Model Recommends whatsoever, I think my praise for the Kindle has mainly been Twitter-based!

You may or may not know that I am a prolific reader. I always have been – I’m a two or three books per week kind of girl, although since launching A Model Recommends reading has taken something of a back seat. But that’s by-the-by; I suppose what I want to stress is that I’m a reader. I love books – I love the feel of them and the smell of them, I love stacking them up beside my bed, I love arranging them on my shelves, and I love falling asleep with my face inside one so that when I wake up I have a story printed on my cheek.

I battled against getting a Kindle for quite a while – I hated the thought that the printed book might die out, that everyone would be clicking away at these horrid grey plasticky rectangles and that, eventually, people would simply stop reading properly at all. They would read a paragraph or two of something or another and then flick over to play some kind of game that would no doubt be pre-installed on the reader.

I’m a convert! I love my Kindle – I think that I actually read more now that I have one than I ever did before! It’s incredibly light and you only have to hold it with one hand – you turn the page by clicking the button at the side, and your thumb is in just the right position to click it when you hold the reader. It’s much more difficult to turn the pages of a book with one hand. My tube journeys have been changed beyond recognition – I can now hold on to the handrail whilst reading and turn the pages without having to use my nose!

I’m never stuck without a book when I go on journeys – if I don’t want to read any of the books that I have already downloaded, I just connect to the Amazon store from the Kindle and choose another. It’s ready to read about twenty seconds later! The 3G connectivity means that I can connect to the Kindle’s internet wherever I am (sometimes I can get on the Kindle internet even when I have no phone reception – it’s amazing!) just about anywhere in the world. There’s no fee for this internet – it’s unlimited and it just comes with the Kindle! Of course, there’s the cheaper WiFi version which is every bit as good – it just means that you’re limited to only being able to download when you’re connected to WiFi. 3G is much more convenient for me when I travel.

What else do I love? There are so many things! There’s no backlight, so reading the screen doesn’t hurt your eyes. It’s pretty much exactly like reading a printed book. Except that if you like you can change the size of the text, or you can make annotations, or you can ‘clip’ sections out and put them into a kind of scrapbook of favourite quotations and phrases. Books are purchased quickly and easily through your existing Amazon account and they are usually quite a bit cheaper than buying the print version.

I’m sure I will think up about another thousand benefits as soon as I press ‘publish’ on this post, but I think it’s enough, for now, just to say that the Kindle has made a huge difference to my reading life. I can now take thousands of books with me wherever I go – no more heavy hardbacks to lug about! Of course, I still love the feel and look of printed books – I have a whole room that’s floor to ceiling bookshelves! – but you just can’t beat the Kindle for convenience.

If you’re considering getting one, make sure you go for the Kindle case with the inbuilt light – a little lamp pulls out from the case to illuminate the screen in the dark, it’s genius! The light charges from the Kindle battery (which, so long as you don’t leave the internet connection on, lasts for weeks on end) and tucks away again into the case when it’s not needed.

I went for the case in hot pink because I’m a bit bored of everything being oh-so-cool black or silver or white.

The Kindle 3G is £152 and the WiFi version is £111. The cases are £50.99 – pretty steep for a case, in my opinion, even if it does have a nifty little light in it, but I’ve definitely had my money’s worth out of both Kindle and light-case already, so I’m not going to complain!