The latest Amazon Kindle ebook reader is, for me at any rate, a dream come true. Certainly, I would gladly admit that, as someone who counts reading as one of my main hobbies, I must be very much Amazon’s target market. On average, I would expect to read an absolute minimum of one book a week – and it’s not atypical for me to have one fiction, one non-fiction and any number of reference books under consideration at any one time.

I don’t believe that’s so uncommon, otherwise traditional print books would sell a lot less, but it does mean that I can expend quite a financial side of things, my collection of books does tend to take up quite a bit of room at home. Once in a while I go through the pile and, setting reference books and favourites to one side, have a bit of a tidy out. Usually the books go to friends or charity shops.

I recently got rid of more than fifty volumes before moving house. It wasn’t until I saw them all, boxed up and ready to go, that I realised I was looking at a spend of anywhere from $500 and $1000 which had built up in just under twelve months.

Now, whilst the Amazon Kindle is a relatively expensive item in itself, the downloadable e-books from the Kindle store are generally quite a bit cheaper than the printed equivalent. After all, there are no printing and delivery costs for the publisher and no mail charges for Amazon. Even saving no more than a few dollars per book, which seems quite achievable, anybody who reads on a regular basis could fairly quickly recover the cost of the device and then start to save money over time.

The potential benefits aren’t just financial. The Kindle 2 has a storage capacity for around 1500 e-books whereas the Kindle DX, which will start shipping on June 10 2009, can accommodate 3500. That’s a lot of books – and a lot of physical storage space that will no longer be needed in your home or office.

Some users have suggested that the Kindle is a green, eco-friendly, device – based upon the fact that it will save on the volume of paper used. It’s easy to see the logic, but obviously some consideration needs to be given to the materials employed in manufacture and also the manner in which the device will be disposed of when it reaches the end of its design life.

The actual benefits achieved will vary from user to user and will probably depend chiefly on the number of books bought yearly. However, for keen readers, it does seem as if the Kindle can offer a variety of different advantages which should more than offset the initial purchase price.