Here’s a nifty new product that should lighten the load of any fellow avid readers out there who have packed up their library with them and brought it along in their rig: The new Amazon Kindle Wireless Reading Device.

If you’re like us, you had a hard time deciding which favorite books to bring with you on the road. Or, you are often leaving books at campgrounds and purchasing new ones along the way.

Either way, there is likely still a stack of books taking up valuable storage space in your RV. Well, this lightweight portable e-book reader may be just the trick to lighten your load and save you money on books and newspapers. Best of all, no computer or internet connection is required!

I don’t mean to sound like an Amazon marketing exec. I just think this is really cool. Having spent the past twenty odd years of my life in the printing industry, I’ve followed the development of electronic paper for a while now and think it is fascinating. And I remember the original Newton MessagePad from Apple, and it’s troubled launch.

In the interest of full disclosure, I have not tried this new Kindle yet myself. I just like cool gadgets and have been reading about it. With recent the advances in electronic paper technology, electronic book readers have come along way. It’s been said that e-books would never catch on since people would never take their computer to the restroom to read the paper. But guess what, the Kindle is not a computer. OK, it’s got the brains of one, but it does not have a typical backlit display screen. The Kindle uses e-paper, which is a display technology designed to mimic the appearance of ordinary ink on paper. Unlike a laptop the high-resolution display of the Kindle can be viewed in full sunlight with no problem.

So how does it work? Amazon likes to say they, “take care of all the hassles, you just read.” But the truth is, there are indeed no service plans, yearly contracts, or monthly wireless bills. Once you purchase the device, Amazon pays the network services for your purchased e-books to be delivered. And the typical download time is less than a minute. And the Kindle uses the same 3G network as advanced cell phones. So no internet connection is required. You’ll never need to locate a WiFi hotspot to download a new book.

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There are supposedly more than 90,000 e-books available for the Kindle, including nearly all those on the New York Times Best Sellers list, which only cost $9.99. And the first few chapters of each book are available free to sample before you buy the whole thing. The same goes for newspaper subscriptions which all come with a free two-week trial. Top newspapers from the U.S and abroad including The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, France’s Le Monde, and The Irish Times are available for the Kindle. As are leading magazines like TIME, Atlantic Monthly, and Forbes. Subscribe to these publications and they are auto-delivered directly to your Kindle, wirelessly.

The Kindle holds over 200 titles, yet is lighter and thinner than a typical paperback, weighing just 10.3 oz. It includes free wireless access to Wikipedia. And you can even email your Word documents and pictures to your Kindle for easy on-the-go viewing. Did I mention this nifty little unit has a built-in dictionary? For you Scrabble players out there, that’s one less big book to carry in your RV!

All this, and the fact that you can carry shelves full of books in one tiny device that fits in the small drawer next to your bed, make the New Kindle from Amazon one handy gadget for any avid reading full-timer. If interested, you better order yours soon. It won’t arrive by Christmas since it is currently sold out but Amazon is shipping them on a first com first serve basis. It’s obviously popular, and I might just go get in line myself now…