just wanted to thank everyone for all the help. I wasn't expecting so many responses! It's good to know that most people don't find the keyboard an irritation - I thought it couldn't be that bad as its such a popular device. But at least now I can tell my mum that I've asked a group of dedicated kindle users about this and the general opinion seems to be that there are some niggles with the keyboard and the kindle in general but these are minor and the pros outweigh the cons!