When I first bought my Kindle in 2010 I bought the 'official' leather cover for around £30. Subsequently when the covers developed a fault that meant many of them were causing the Kindles to 'short' or 'freeze', I was lucky enough to get a free upgrade to the version with the built in light. It was a pretty thing constructed of 'Barbie-pink' textured leather but it had one initial disadvantage - it weighed a ton - and a second which only became apparent many months later - the light didn't work.

I got in touch with Amazon and they agreed to refund the cost of my original cover (£29.99, I believe) or replace it with another cover with the light (value of more than £50). Despite the latter perhaps being the better bargain, I'd found so little need for a light that I went for the refund and then had the problem of finding myself a new cover.

After more than a year with the heavy leather covers I'd learned that I didn't really like them very much. They were bulky, heavy and for someone like me with rather small hands, they weren't very comfortable to hold. I decided to scrap the whole idea of a cover and buy a neoprene sleeve instead. I spent a while 'Googling' my options and eventually came up with a bargain that pushed all the sleeves on Amazon into the shade. For a mere £2.80 including postage, I bought a 'reversible neoprene carry case pouch for Amazon Kindle 3 - black/red'. Perhaps you can tell I just copied that off the delivery note. I've now been using this for more than 2 months and we're getting along just fine. I always found it hard to hold a Kindle in my old covers with just one hand unless I bent the cover right back on itself - I much prefer to be able to protect the Kindle when I need to (i.e. when it's in my bag) but to read it 'naked' (the Kindle obviously, not me) in between.

The supplier is a company called 7dayshop.com which is based in St Peter Port in Guernsey which probably means they don't pay VAT. Mind you on an item costing so little, it wouldn't have broken the bank if they had. Ordering was quick and straightforward and I was really surprised to not get charged for postage. The sleeve arrived about a week after I ordered it and at first sight I wondered if I might have 'boobed' - it just looked so small and I was worried I might have bought one for the new smaller format Kindle. I had nothing to worry about - the sleeve was exactly the right size for a snug fit.

The sleeve weighs in at just 51 grams - or less than 2 ounces for those who've never adapted to metric weights. After the leather covers which weigh nearly 230 grams this sleeves feels very light and takes up very little space. It's made of reversible neoprene with black on one side and bright red on the other which makes me laugh as my Kindle can now dress like me as my wetsuit is the same colours. The choice of colours is handy when I'm carrying it in my handbag as I loathe having too many black things all shoved in my bag and difficult to find. The open edges are neatly bound in silver grey tape and the black side has the company's logo - a white figure seven on a red background - at the bottom right hand side. There are no zips or closures and the shape is simple and a bit like an envelope. All you need to do is to pull back the top flap, slide in the Kindle and then pull the flap back over. If you want to change the colour, just pull out the Kindle and turn the cover inside out. It's not exactly rocket science. The seams are firmly sewn and show no sign of fraying or other damage.

If your sleeve gets dirty - and I can't particularly think why it would - neoprene is easy to wash but you just need to make sure you dry it fully before using it again. In a perfect world I would prefer a sleeve that's a bit thicker than this one which is only about 4mm thick. Mostly what I want from any cover is that it stops the Kindle from getting scratched, dusty or dirty or from odds and ends getting stuck into the charging 'holes' on the bottom. I don't really expect a cover to protect my Kindle from my stupidity or from a car driving over it or an elephant sitting on it. I have dropped the Kindle once since buying this and it took quite a knock which bent the join between the back and the base out of place slightly but this had no impact on the Kindle in use. I can't say for sure that my old leather cover would actually have done a much better job though and this incident mostly taught me that it's not a good idea to throw your Kindle around which should have been common sense.

A sleeve like this costs less than 10% of the price for the Kindle leather cover - leaving lots more money to spend on books, which is surely the main point of having a Kindle.

www.7dayshop.com
Note: Just in case anyone is wondering at the difference between the name used by dooyoo and by me, I am the one who suggested this so it's definitely the right product, and the photo is a perfect match for my sleeve.