When I first started hearing about the Kindle I was initially dubious as I didn't think you could beat a good old book. I have many books clogging up the shelves at home and wasn't sure I could cope with technology (Yes I'm 27 but no I am not of the new 'gadget' generation.)

I will tell you the reason I decided to get a Kindle. I live abroad and getting decent books is a bit of a hassle. We don't have any actual book shops here, well we do but living in Tenerife the books do tend to be written in Spanish (How very rude of them : )

We have some second hand book shops which are fine but you cannot get the new releases and you do depend on the books which people have given in often meaning you are left wanting. Of course I could order from Amazon but the books arrive weeks after you have ordered and sometimes they do get lost in the post. Therefore I decided I would go ahead and buy a Kindle and opted for the Kindle touch.

I ordered the Kindle from Amazon and had it delivered to my parents address in the UK as I was going there for a holiday a few weeks later. I was taken aback by how simple the set up was. I already have an Amazon account so all I had to do was enter the serial number which was on the Kindle packaging into Amazon, choose a name for my Kindle and that was pretty much it. Believe me when I say it was not hard as I am normally rubbish with following instructions and making things actually work!

The Kindle has truly changed my life. I know this may seem a bit over the top but it is true. It is so light weight and the screen is just like reading a paperback book. You get absolutely no glare from it at all even when you are reading it in direct sunlight (and I should know as I read it in Tenerife whilst sunbathing most weeks.)

It is also so simple to choose and download books. Once you commit to buy a book it is downloaded in a matter of seconds. You can also see your 'chosen for you' book lists which are a collection of books similar to those you have previously bought which is amazing as you have so much choice at your finger-tips.
I also love the fact that you can download a sample of a book before you buy it. You tend to get 10% of the book to try, therefore if you do not like the book you haven't wasted any money.

The prices of the books are often discounted as well which is great as you save so much money.
All of the books you purchase are in your library on the kindle and you can leave a book at any time and when you go back to it it's on the exact page you left it (no more flicking through to try and find your spot.) And don't worry about losing or breaking the Kindle because all your books are saved to your amazon account as well so you can easily transfer them onto a new Kindle.

You can literally save thousands of books onto the Kindle as well so it will never be full... and you are not taking up half of your living room space with books!

And just to add, the battery life lasts forever (at least 1 month at a time for an avid reader and longer if you only read it once or twice a week) and you have access to loads of free books which is always a good thing.
If there are negatives for the Kindle touch it would be firstly that you cannot flick through easily like you can a paperback book. So I wouldn't recommend reading things like Bibles or cookbooks on the Kindle. There is a way to find different chapters and pages but it is a bit confusing and not as simple as just flicking through. Secondly it is not simple to swap your books with others like you can the good old hard back. It is possible but you need to register both Kindles to the same account and then you can share them but this is time consuming.
However, overall this is an excellent e-reader. I can't comment on whether it is the best as I don't have any experience with any others but it has certainly lightened up my life and I now don't ever have to visit a second hand bookshop again!