Last time I blogged, I wrote about how Kindles are far outselling old-fashioned paper books. I didn't mention which I prefer.

I have two bookcases full of books in my bedroom, and a further three in another. I love books.

I have read and loved real books continuously since I was three, but I am a convert. Last December I was bought a Kindle, and I am sad to say I have never looked back.

I often take the train and commute around London and my Kindle slips into my small bag perfectly, unlike a 700 page book. Carting that around used to mean emptying my bag before travelling only to store necessities (keys, wallet, phone) in my pockets just so my bag could accommodate whichever novel I was reading.

The Kindle is not perfect though, far from it.  Mine does not have a backlight, and I did not like the design of the covers with inbuilt lights. If your Kindle runs out of juice, you are screwed for the remainder of the journey.  This will never happen with a book, obviously, but if you finish a book on a long journey then you have no other reading material - an eReader can carry hundreds if not thousands of various titles so the chance of this happening is very remote. That said, I have been known to read the same eBook three times having run out of new novels on a train ride.

One of the glories of real books is the actual reading, the turning of a page and the sound it makes, the papery smell it holds and lets out with every time it is opened. This is something that the Kindle lacks - it is not the same pressing a button to flick a page, and the '% read' bar at the bottom of an eBook page can be deceiving.

Nevertheless, I think, at the end of the day, it is about ease.  We have so much to carry - iPhone, work phone, tablet, keys, wallet, chewing gum, reading material - and it just does not easily fit in one bag.

So, the Kindle solves a problem that really did already exist, for commuters especially, and, as much as real book lovers hate to admit it, Kindles are the way forward.

Try it, it'll change your (reading) life.

@lu1820