There is something about the simple pleasure of being curled up on the sofa. or in bed, turning the pages of a physical book. En-masse on shelves, they are part of what makes a home a home. I have a pretty minimalist home but still find room for around a thousand of them.

But I also wouldn't be without ebooks. When travelling, it's fantastic to have a choice of literally hundreds of books on a device which takes up virtually no space or weight.

I first started reading ebooks on a PDA, and later on my phone, but finally gave in and bought a dedicated ebook reader: the Amazon Kindle 2. This has several advantages over a phone as a reader.

First, screen size. The Kindle screen is about the same size as a paperback book, so a lot more pleasant to read.

Second, the epaper screen has no backlight, making it readable even in bright sunlight.

Third, battery-life. Phones eat batteries while the screen is lit; epaper uses no power at all to display a page, only to change pages. With wireless switched off, the Kindle 2 is good for about 3000 pages, so even the most avid reader will get a fortnight between charges, and it laughs in the face of 15-hour flights.

Finally, if you run out of books in a Shanghai hotel at 2am, no problem: switch wireless on and use the worldwide free 3G connectivity to browse the Amazon bookstore and download a novel in less than a minute.