Blonde's Eye View: Travelling light

Even those worrisome people who don't read during the rest of the year (serial killers or accountants) look for printed stimulation in the holiday season.

And I don't mean Fifty Shades Of Grey, unless of course you're reading one of the 20 million copies sold. And what are the chances of that?

I have a voracious appetite. (For books. We've left the whole sadomasochism thing behind, keep up.) I packed so many paperbacks one year it took two muscly Italian waiters to carry my case into the hotel. That was a good year.

Hubby searches my luggage for hidden hardbacks with more fervour than customs officials looking for drugs.

I've admitted weight limit defeat: I've bought a Kindle. I can hear my dust jacketed friends weeping softly. "Don't worry, books, I'll read you at home. Then buy you again digitally to finish while I'm away!"

I'm a covert convert. Kindles are so light. If I finish everything I can download a book I really want, instead of resorting to the Penny Vincenzi with the missing pages someone's abandoned in the room.

I've even overcome the ugly grey plastic e-reader aesthetic. Why do all electronics companies, bar Apple, think that's attractive? I fixed mine with Blue Peter sticky-backed plastic.

I was set to travel with my new toy. I ran round the house waving the device like a mobile phone, trying to get signal, trying to download half of Amazon. It wasn't having it.

You don't get that with a paperback. Let me know if you see any muscly Italians...

Find Angela on twitter: @TheAngelaClarke