“I took my Kindle with me to Iraq…”
So I’ve finally started reading Amazon’s discussion forums for the Kindle, and just discovered a fascinating post titled “Kindle and the Navy,” where one female soldier from Maryland reports, “I loved having my Kindle with me on deployment.”
“I used to carry around bags of books,” she remembers, adding that in fact, “my last deployment on the ship I ended up having close to $800 worth of books sent to me — only about half of which I kept because I ran out of room!” The thread was started when a another soldier’s mother and sister asked whether the Kindle would make a good gift, and they received an enthusiastic response. “If he is a vicarious reader, I would say go for it!”
“I would have LOVED a kindle back in the day when I was deployed…” added another soldier. “This is a GREAT idea for deployed people!!”
Another gift idea was a sturdy carrying case to protect the Kindle, and someone even found a a carrying case with a Navy camouflage pattern (though other posters recommended the even sturdier waterproof cases from M-Edge). There’s even a campaign called Operation ebook Drop, in which some authors give service members free copies of their ebooks!
I’d never thought about whether the Kindle would be used in the military, but it seems like a natural fit. (My friend in the Navy once complained that some days fell into the category of “Hurry up and wait.”) And it does seem like it’d make a nice gift for a soldier. At least while you were stationed far from home…you could always have something to read!