It sounded like a better, lighter way to pack for a trip to Germany: a Kindle with a Lonely Planet travel guide in lieu of an 844-page brick of a book.
Yet to my surprise, the 10-day visit to Munich, Dresden and Berlin turned into a lesson about the pitfalls of cramming an old medium — the book — into a new one — the electronic reading device.
It’s a good thing that I had the foresight to bring a paper copy of Lonely Planet’s “Germany,” borrowed from the public library. My plan was to bring it as a backup in case something went wrong with the Kindle, but leave it in the hotel room to lighten my backpack. Instead, I ditched the Kindle and carried the book around.
That made me sad, because the Kindle, and the e-reading revolution, promises so much.
The e-reader from Amazon.com Inc. is light and can store not only the travel guide, but all the bulky novels I’ve been meaning to catch up on. A built-in dictionary lets me look up strange words.
The Kindle lets me type notes, highlight passages, and find them easily again. I added tips on tipping and transit fares as well as a reminder to visit a concentration camp memorial outside Berlin. The Kindle also lets me add bookmarks, the digital equivalent of the folded corners, or doggie ears, that I’ve marred many paperbacks with in the past.
Preparing for the trip, there was no need to go to a book store or even a computer. I just bought the book through the Kindle’s wireless connection. The Kindle version of the Lonely Planet guide was cheaper, too — $15.39, compared with the paper version at $18.47 on Amazon (the list price for both is $27.99).
Lonely Planet also let me buy individual chapters — for example,…