Amazon Kindle

Ed you can't treat it like a book.
i was talking about them with a friend who had just returned from a holiday in the maldives, he said people were trying to read them on the beach with towels over their heads so they could see the screen...

Umm, que?

I think you must be referring to a non epaper device, so not a kindle. Kindle's get easier to read the brighter it is, since they work by reflecting, not emitting light. These "towel heads" of which you speak were probably trying to read an iPad which is a very fragile device.