I enjoy reading on my Kindle and occasionally use the Kindle app on my iPhone. I am currently using the Kindle Fire HDX but have used other Kindles in the past. So what I have to say is specifically about the Kindle HDX but also seems to apply to other Kindles.

I do like the feel of a real book but reading on the Kindle does have quite a few advantages and, as I see it, one big disadvantage. I like being able to quickly access the internet to look-up some thing i am not familiar with. I like being able to search the book I am reading when I run across something and want to refresh my memory on something related that I think I read but am a bit fuzzy on the details.

The big disadvantage is that graphics (maps, charts, figures, tables, etc.) are often quite small and unreadable. This is much more of a problem in nonfiction than fiction. But it just seemed to be a drawback I had to learn to live with. If a book seemed likely to have any critical information in graphics, I would just have to read that book in paper format.

This morning I was reading such a book in Kindle format. I ran into an unreadable maps. I was hoping Kindles had improved or perhaps the book had been formatted better. I tried stretching the map in the 2 finger fashion that often proves useful on touch screens. No luck. I tried touching the map in hopes it was linked to a full-size version. No luck again.

So I downloaded the Kindle for iPad App to my iPad mini. I had immediate access to my book and the location was synced across devices, so I had immediate access to the maps in question. And the 2 finger stretch worked to make the map readable.

I’ll definitely use the Kindle app on the iPad for looking at graphics and see how I like it for reading. perhaps this a a feature the Kindle folks would like to incorporate in their e-readers.