There's no need to spend a lot of money on an Amazon Kindle.

The retail giant wants to sell you its top-of-the-line model, the Kindle Oasis, for $279.99. But I’ve been a Kindle owner for years and recently purchased the least expensive model, the base Kindle that sells for $89.99, because I wanted something cheaper that I could throw in my luggage when I travel.

I expected to crave the Kindle Oasis’s larger screen and warm backlighting at home. After all, I read for hours a day. The basic Kindle would strain my eyes, I thought. But that’s not what happened.

I bought the Kindle Oasis last year, convinced it would change my life. I drooled over descriptions of the upgrades it offered over my beloved Kindle Paperwhite.