Product review 2: Book Vs kindle

I took a kindle on this trip to Europe.  I needed several guidebooks to cover the six months of travel, and my obsession for light travel demanded a better solution.  This obsession, which may not be common to everyone, tints this review.  Note, that I only used the kindle as a travel guidebook, not as a regular reader.

Observations

Plus

• The kindle is much lighter, even after I tear out (gasp), then discard, used pages.
• I can fit a kindle into my pants' cargo pocket.  (Though I can't close the flap.)
• Kindle's hyperlinks are an efficient way to provide diverse information.
• Enlarging the font size is a welcome feature.  It enables reading, in a dark cathedral.
• Pages are easy to 'bookmark'.
• New books are easily downloaded during travel.
• The kindle opens to the same page it closed.

Minus

• Carrying a kindle is less comfortable than carrying the few pages I tear out of the book, then fold in my shirt pocket.
• Reading maps on the kindle is hard, and sometimes impossible.
• Opening the kindle to a random location is impossibly tedious.
• Opening a 'bookmarked' page is slower than the equivalent action in a book.
• kindle's 'Search' function is primitive and produces duplicate results.  A book's index is better.

Conclusion

• If I need only one guidebook on a trip, paper is a clear winner.
• Since I usually require more than one book, I'll keep using the kindle.