Hubs and I each have a Kindle, and we both love them! We are both avid readers, so our Kindles get a lot of use. When we travel, we always take books with us, and the books that Hubs reads are generally hard-bound, so bringing three or four of his books along makes for a heavy and bulky carry-on bag. But our Kindles will hold at least 1,500 books (each) in a nifty device that weighs about 8 ounces. It's so easy and convenient to have the Kindle with you at all times. If you have to wait at the doctor's office, you aren't stuck reading really old magazines that aren't of any interest to you (sorry, but Field and Stream isn't on my "must read" list); if you're stuck waiting for the bridge (in Sacramento, we have the Tower Bridge, which goes up/down, and the I Street Bridge, which turns) to allow river boats to pass, you've got something with you to read to pass the time (waiting for the I Street Bridge is at least a 15-minute wait), etc. When you're reading a book, and you turn off the Kindle, when you turn it back on again, you're right where you left off. If you leave that book and go to another, when you return to the first book, you're right where you left off. You can add your own notes/annotations. You can subscribe to magazines and/or newspapers, and they'll be automatically downloaded to your Kindle. You get a free 14-day subscription to the newspapers and magazines, to see if you want to continue with a paid subscription. (You can even get international newspapers!) Now, I'd like to respond to a few things that were written above: "Yes, books cost the same as in store. if the book is available in paperback- paperback price."" Not exactly correct. To tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, the cost of Kindle books can vary widely. Some books actually do cost a little more in the Kindle edition than they do in a print version. But that's relatively rare. Most books are significantly less expensive in the Kindle version, and most of those are less expensive in the Kindle version than in the paperback version. There are a huge number of Kindle books that are $9.99, there are a lot that are more than that - depending on the cost of the print edition; and there are a whole lot that are less than that. Some Kindle books are free (all of the old classics are, but many new ones are, too); some are $1 or $2, some are in the $4 to $7 range, etc. I recently purchased the following: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo - $6.77 The Girl who Played with Fire - $7.59 The Girl who Kicked the Hornet's Nest - $9.99 By the way, those prices are the same for the Barnes & Noble Nook. "You can share books/magazines with up to 6 other Kindles or PC's. PC app is included." Yes, you can "share" books/magazines with up to 6 other Kindles or computers, but only if those other Kindles are registered to the same account. My husband and I each have a Kindle, but mine is registered to my Amazon account and my husband's is registered to his Amazon account. We cannot share books/magazines between our Kindles. The PC app isn't exactly "included" when you get a Kindle. You can download - for free - the Kindle application for your computer/laptop, BlackBerry, MAC, Android, iPad/iPhone; but, again, your content will only show up in your account so you can't transfer it to a Kindle registered to another account. But, I can take our laptop and read anything of my husband's just by going to his stuff on it. :-) If you read a few pages of any book on, say, your BlackBerry, then you go to the Kindle, the Kindle will be automatically set to where you left off reading on the BlackBerry. "Back-lit for easy reading, even in direct sunlight -- only reader with this feature." Yes, the Kindle can very easily be read in direct sunlight. Absolutely not correct that it is backlit. If you want to read your Kindle in the dark, you will need an accessory light for it. Regarding text-to-speech on the Kindle -- it is not available on all Kindle books. But, when you look at the description for any of Kindle books, it will tell you if the text-to-speech is enabled. So, if you have a book with the text-to-speech feature and you want to use it, you simply press the Aa key (this is the one you use when you want to change the font size). You will then get a window which, in addition to allowing you to change the font size as well as the screen orientation (portrait to landscape), allows you to turn the text-to-speech ON, and you can also select whether you want to use the default male voice, or the female voice. You can also accept the default speed, or make it faster or slower. There are little speakers built in (look at the bottom of the back of the Kindle), or you can plug headphones in (port is on the top). You can adjust the volume level by a toggle switch on the upper right side of the Kindle. When you are using the text-to-speech feature, the "pages" of the book are automatically turned. You can also load MP3 songs on your Kindle and listen to them, but I haven't done that because if I want to listen to music, I'll use my MP3 player...

@seagrass_gw asked, "Can find the courage to leave my laptop behind for 2 weeks?" Yes, you can! For many hardback books purchased from Amazon, you can get the Kindle version for free or very low cost. Not all books qualify. I forget what they call the "program" that allows this, but you can search around, or even call Amazon customer service and ask. At any rate... My husband and I both love to read. We used to go to Hawaii every six months, and it's great to sit on the beach or by the pool and read a good book. And Hubs used to lug several hardback books along with us on vacation and, of course, he'd put them in his carry-on luggage because he didn't want them to get lost or damaged in checked luggage. He's really into historical stuff and his books are always very thick and very heavy. But with a Kindle, you can have thousands of really long books and the Kindle will still weigh less than 7 ounces.

Thanks so much for all of the input and suggestions! Moxie, I particularly found your link helpful, as I might not have even thought about checking to see which carriers support my phone. (Turns out, a good number of them do across all bands, including names I recognize like 3, GiffGaff, O2, and Vodafone.) We used a portable WiFi in Iceland and it was a godsend. I think a UK SIM card will be the more economical route to go for my trip, though, so will continue to pursue that route. Looks like several of you successfully use WhatsApp. I'm probably more likely to continue using Skype, as I don't use Facebook products at all if I can avoid it (just a personal thing with me, no need to expound on it here). In thinking this through, I'm hesitant to ask my US contacts to download an app if they don't already have it. Actually, I may need to explore switching my carrier (particularly if I can find one that includes talk/text between UK and US), and perhaps looking at getting DH and I on the same plan. My phone was not unlocked until recently, so this wasn't an option - but it is now. If, however, I keep my current carrier (which does not have coverage in the UK) and purchase a UK SIM from one of the carriers that is compatible with my phone, I remain confused as to how calls and texts between the UK and US work. I understand there's a charge associated, but how do I pay for the calls and texts? ETA: Looks like with some SIM cards, the cost of texts/calls from UK to US simply comes out of airtime credit and can be topped up online as needed.

maddiemo, I'm not sure I understand your comment. And whether you understood what I said or not. I'll try rephrasing my earlier comment. You said "Libby is an app that some libraries use to lend ebooks" and I disagreed. My comment clarified that Libby is Overdrive software for Overdrive content only. Most libraries have content from many different sources in addition to Overdrive, such as Hoopla, RBDigital, etc. Each provider has its own proprietary software, To the best of my knowledge, Libby only works with Overdrive content. That was all I said, to restrict my comment to what you said and not go on too far. Now I'll go on too a bit further to clarify. Libby is Overdrive's newest software and the website steers you to using that. It's the first thing mentioned on the Overdrive site. There's also its old software "product", called Overdrive for Windows, Overdrive for Mac, Overdrive for Android, etc, that is still available but isn't what they push. It happens I use the old version (Called Overdrive for Desktop) but that's because I have for 10 years or more and when I tried Libby, I didn't like it. Okay?