Going to 7 countries in 6 weeks this next Spring; Italy, Austria, Germany, Switzerland, Czech Republic, and France. Rick Steves France 2010 Country Guide ALONE weighs 1 lb 4 oz. If I brought each one of his Country guides, I could be lugging around 10 lbs of books (not counting phrasebooks, novels to read, etc. Plus I'd like some other guides as backup like Lonely Planet.
So I bought a Kindle.
I love it. It weighs a mere 10 ounces, can book mark any book, easy to search, wireless downloads, etc. One problem, not all of Rick's books are out in Kindle editions. He has a lot of City Edition (for around $9.99) and Snapshots $5-$8 range. But they do not cover the whole country and I don't see any Country Guides in the Kindle bookstore. Purchasing individual regional guides will cost more than the whole country guide and still leave holes in my travel agenda.
I emailed the RickSteves contact asking what Kindle editions would be forthcoming when (leaving this Spring). They replied they had no information, I should contact Amazon for what was available.
Come on Rick! If you are serious about lightening our load, get your guides out on Kindle (Sony or B&N) readers and let us know when. I don't want to purchase a slew of regional guides and have you come out with the country guides just before I leave. You probably don't have to lug your own guidebooks around when you travel! Have a some little pity for us.