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Looking for an E-reader
No kindle?! I love mine to bits, battery lasts a month.
I have a Sony Touch and am very pleased; I's say look at Sony and also Nook, both of which can handle library books. The Nook has color which the Sony doesn't have, but I believe the Sony is loghter.
Consumer reports says the newest nook is the best currently. I love my kindle personally. Also really do love reading on the iPad in any of the book readers.
I love my Nook Color. I second the suggestion of the new Simple Nook. Consumer Reports gave it a thumbs up last week.
Mod
(I know you said no iPad, but I thought I'd make the case anyway in case you want your "ebook reading dollars" to work for a device that does more than just ebooks!)
I have the Sony 505, like Sherri. My battery, which is built-in, is getting weaker, but I can still easily go over a week without a recharge. It was a month originally. I like that it has no wireless, so what is on it I put there & can keep there. I use Calibre, a free program, to convert & manage my books. It will not convert DRM protected Kindle books & the Sony can't read them. That's a consideration if you're a big Amazon fan. I won't buy any DRM protected files, so it's not an issue for me.
If you like Calibre, be sure to donate some to the author. He does a great job of updating it & is very fast to answer questions, if you ever have any.My Sony is a couple of years old. I know the 700 series & many of the new color models of all brands have a real problem with reading outside due to glare. That's one of the things I like best about the epaper, besides the fantastic battery life, is the lack of glare & how easy it is on the eyes compared to a back lit screen. I don't read in bed or any where I don't have good light, though.
Thanks for your opinions on the Nook, Sherri. That's nice to know. I don't plan on getting another ereader any time too soon, but probably will have to in another couple of years.
I agree with Stephen in terms of prefering real books over ebooks. I do have to say, though, I did get a Kindle last year for Christmas, and I like it (mostly because of the freebies, I think).
I haven't noticeably cut down on my real books, either. I was hoping to, but I really still like them better. I tend to use my ereader for free books. There are a lot authors out of copyright like on Project Gutenberg or new ones who have a free first book they want me to review. Tor & Baen have free books, too. That's how I found out about Honor Harrington.I've been on a bit of a mission to try to read all of Robert E. Howard's prose & so many of the paper books duplicate stories (I have 4 or 5 copies of some) not to mention some are hard to find, but his stuff is free all over the web, especially the Australian Project Gutenberg. Gutenberg.org only had 1 story of his.
No, an ereader certainly hasn't replaced paper books & I doubt it ever will for me, but it's certainly been a nice supplement.
YOu can add highlights etc on kindle. YOu can also loan out in the US. I didn't intend it to take over my life but it has, I haven't bought a paper book since Feb.
I have a Sony Reader PRS-950 that I got for Christmas last year. I love it and the battery lasts about four to six weeks with the Wi-fi off and reading ~2 hours a day on average. It will also charge off a wall plug or a USB port.It's a touch screen and it will flag pages and take notes, both typed and handwritten, as well as highlighting quotes. It also has SD and mini-SD card slots, plays mp3's and you can import your own photos and files. The screen is e-ink gray-scale and I haven't had any problems with glare, even in sunlight. It does need a book light in low lighting conditions, but fortunately I also got a cover with a built in book light. :-)
In case you can't tell, I would recommend it. It's pricier than some, but I think it was worth it.
I have a non-color Nook and I adore it
I've had the SONY PRS-300 for about a year and a half now, and I love it. I read a LOT, and I can still get away with only charging it every couple of weeks. My only complaint is that I wish it had more memory, but that's a minor issue.I've played with the Kobo and found it really slow. I just didn't like the feel of the Nook, and as nice as the Kindle is (it wasn't available in Canada when I got my SONY), I don't like the keyboard. I understand the value of it, but I want maximum screen space, with nothing else to intrude on my reading experience.
I got an extra memory card for my Sony 550 & found that more memory wasn't a good thing. I have a lot of books, pdf's & other documents I tried to load on it. By the time I hit 1000, it was taking 20 minutes to load up the first time. Shortly after that, the database got corrupted. I tried wiping & reloading, but got the same results, so I called Sony tech support & waded upstream to a decent tech. Apparently, after loading a book, it rebuilds the database on the device & the processor/database combination just wasn't up to the task of handling that much info. It seems to be just fine with up to 500 files or so. Since books are only 1/4mb each or so, even a relatively small amount of memory can hold more than the reader can handle.
Now that's interesting . . . and explains some of my own issues. I noticed it takes longer to load the more books I add, but I expected that. As I've come closer to the memory limit (I have about 700 books loaded), I've noticed a few glitches where loading a book almost seems to force a reboot that displays the Acrobat logo for 20 minutes before the SONY turns itself off. I'll have to pare down my selections to my 'immediate' reading needs and see what kind of a performance difference that makes.
Helen wrote: "Kindle can hold 3500 books!"The Sony 550 is something like 4 or 5 year old technology, so I'm not surprised that newer devices can deal with more. I really don't need that many books on the device anyway. Considering how long it takes to get through the author, title, series or date added lists, I prefer to keep it leaner.
My big issue with the Kindle back when I was looking was it wouldn't accept RTF & PDF documents unless you sent them through the Kindle service for processing. Many of mine have naming issues, too. I needed to be able to edit the metadata. I hear they changed that, but it was too late. Then they pulled Orwell's 1984 from all US devices without any warning & I decided I didn't want to deal with them - ever. The device is too proprietary & Amazon is too free with privacy rights.
The reason I don't want the IPAD is the price point. I want something that I wont regret if it breaks, also I have a small hatred for Apple I-stuff.I have been eyeing the sony, kobo or now...a nook.
BTW, I am not a big fan of being able to carry 1000s of books. I would be happy if it could carry 5.
Thanks folks. Keep em coming
Mod
(That being said, I would have loved one of these when I was in school and in college, for all those heavy textbooks!)
I generally use my Sony for travel; one of my biggest fears when on vacation is running out of reading material so in the past, I've lugged around way too many books. With my Sony, I can carry 15-20 library books and not worry about them being overdue as they automatically destruct when due. If I carry my computer, I can DL books 24/7 from my home library system (said to be the biggest in the US). I don;t keep the books so don't care how many can be on the reader.
As you say you don't really need more than your one book at a time, but my shelves love not having extra and my kindle hides new spending beautifully! Two friends are very happy with their nook or sony.
Stefan wrote: "(That being said, I would have loved one of these when I was in school and in college, for all those heavy textbooks!) "I don't have an ereader yet - not against them but not convinced I need one - but the thing you said above actually has me wondering about the future.
I would have done terribly in school if my textbooks had been on an ereader.
I have a very good memory, but my recall for tests involved bringing actual physical pages to mind. Where they were in relation to a chapter, a photo, the beginning vs. the end of the book. My studying involved underlining or following with a pencil. That's still how I commit stuff to memory.
I think e-textbooks would have rendered me a mess.
Sarah Pi wrote: "Stefan wrote: "(That being said, I would have loved one of these when I was in school and in college, for all those heavy textbooks!) "I don't have an ereader yet - not against them but not conv..."
Nook has a Nook Study program, easily downloadable to your computer that allows you to take notes, highlight, compare texts and many other things for people in school. I wish I'd had it when I was in a difficult psychoanalytic training program to study for exams!
I have the original Nook which I've had since Feb, 2010, and I love it. Have had no issues except the battery life is rather short. A friend just bought the new Nook and if mine wears out, that's what I'll buy. I'm not a fan of Amazon, and bought the Nook after comparing features. At that time, Amazon still wasn't allowing library book borrowing and only 'read' books from Amazon, so I decided the Nook was more versatile. I also love the touch pad at the bottom vs. the Kindle keyboard, which seems rather clunky to me. I would also be MAJORLY pissed if B&N stole my books back like Amazon did that time.
I am close to buying one. I didn't get one when I was in the states last week. Couple reasons. Price. The American and Canadian differences were minor. Mind you the Canadian dollar was riding high last week so there was that. The other reason was if it was faulty. Hate to get home and find out I was 3000 miles from the store I bought it at.So I am going to get a Kobo. Beleive I will get the non touch version.
Hey, y'all I joined some time ago but haven't had time yet to read any posts. But now I hope to participate more.I had to weigh in on e-readers: I won't tell you what is best, but will say this: You'll get used to whatever you buy. What you should look at as factors affecting choice is not so much battery life or how the buttons feel. You need to make your decision based on content availability and the ease of use for the source of your downloads.
For instance I chose Kindle because I prefer the Amazon website rather than Barnes and Noble. I can find books better and they have more of the kind of content I wanted to read.
Don't let free downloads from the library be a factor since Kindle is scheduled to do that "sometime this year". Of course I guess you could say "I'll believe it when I see it" but truly they have to allow it to stay competitive.
Finally check out your local library. We offer classes in how to download to the eReaders and we offer a eReader "petting zoo" for people wanting to try them out. Also I found that Best Buy carries most of the big names, so you can try them in the store.
Good Luck
Robin the Librarian
I was thinking on the bike ride home, I am going to wait a bit longer....I plan on reading the Honor Harrington reads on ereader (I do have all the books in paper). I am going to look around a bit longer though. I do agree with Robin. I want it as versatile as I can get it.
I have downloaded all the readers to the ipad I have the use of and have used most of them. In addition I have a kindle. There are real advantages in the ipad as far as brightness and maps and illustrations that I have seen on ibooks and the nook look far better than anything like that on the kindle. I have actually not used the kindle app on the ipad, I tend to use the kindle. But I can't spend a day reading on the ipad, it needs charging before the day is up. Not so the kindle and that actually is important to me.
I haven't tried reading on anything else. Although there aren't as many to choose from in the UK. I didn't think I'd like reading on an e-book but I find myself prefering it more all the time. The battery lasts a month - with lots of reading, also it's easy to get books from Amazon or convert with Calibre. My current book has sat on my shelves for umpteen years until I found an e-version. Now my 1346 pages are remarkably light.
Mod
http://ebookfling.com/
Note - this isn't an endorsement. I have no idea if it works or anything. I haven't even signed up because I'm already neck deep in books I need to read by yesterday. Someone just passed me that link recently, and it looks like a neat idea.
Ken wrote: "So I am going to get a Kobo. Beleive I will get the non touch version. "Ken, did you get the Kobo? Are you enjoying it?
Apparently I'm about to receive one as a gift.
You might take a look at this:http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/hine...
It's a brief run down of what this guy considers the top 10 tablets & includes the color Nook. Personally, I like epaper for the lack of glare & battery life, but not everyone agrees & the tablets do a lot more.
Mod
Sarah I never picked one up. I was so close.I am very much on the fence still. I look around my apt and see 100s of books that need reading.
Think I am going to wait.
I might change my mind come Oct or Nov but I dont think so. I have to many on my shelf now.
I think Stefan's right that the main divide at the moment is between dedicated ereaders with eink and tablets that do lots of things including letting you read books.I read somewhere (and sorry but I don't remember where) that at present it seems (as a generalisation) to be dividing on gender lines. More women are buying dedicated eink devices, while more men are buying tablets.
We certainly fit that profile at our house, where my husband has an iPad and I have a Kindle. While I enjoy some of the other aspects of the iPad (eg some of the games, being able to watch movies/tv, some social media), I have no desire to read on it and love my Kindle to pieces. DH has no interest in my Kindle at all, but does read on the iPad.
Vision (possibly age) might have something to do with ereader versus other devices, too. A lot of my friends here say they read on their phones, which is too small for me. My over-50 eyes also appreciate NOT reading a backlit screen after a day on the computer.One day they'll make the perfect ereader. It will have several pages of epaper on one side & a tablet with a color screen built into the left. That way I can look at pictures, make notes or look something up on the web as needed, but really settle in to read with the pages on the right.
One downside to my ereader & all that I've seen is the short block of text available & the inability to quickly flip back a page or to a map. I read fast, sometimes skim, & a few paragraphs just aren't enough before I have to wait 1/2 second or so for a page to turn. That's a long time when I'm in a good scene.
My kindle has no problem whipping through pages. I adore it. Wondering whether to buy it a leather coat!
I highly reccomend you do Helen the "official" ones that amazon sell for the kindle 3 with the light in them are fantastic I was abit iffy about buying one but eventually did and I'm very glad i did it gives it a real book feel and the light works much better than I expected.
Thanks. Do they come off easily? When I'm at home for the weekend or school holidays I like to read it cover-less.
Jim wrote: "Vision (possibly age) might have something to do with ereader versus other devices, too. A lot of my friends here say they read on their phones, which is too small for me. My over-50 eyes also ap..."That's my problem, Jim. I need more contrast than e-ink provides. I have a Kindle and can read with it, but the iPad is more comfortable, esp in bed at nite when the spouse wants the lights out.
As a male, I find the Kindle to be the perfect device for reading. It's thin, lightweight, and easy on the eyes after long use. I tried a Nook before but it was too buggy and wasn't as intuitive as the Kindle. I feel like iPads or other tablets are too distracting. In a world filled with distraction I prefer the lack of stimulation (light, games, email, etc.) when reading. Also, since I stare at computer screens a lot, I enjoy the break in mass amounts of photons being jammed into my retina.
So I was officially given a Kobo yesterday. It has a nice feel, and other than my urge to touch the screen instead of the buttons, it's pretty intuitive. I like that the title of the book I'm reading stays on the cover when I turn it off. It came with 100 books loaded on it, the usual classics, some of which I've always meant to read, so maybe I will now.My Mac's OS appears too old to interface properly with the Kobo store, but I wasn't planning on buying anything there anyway.
I had a couple of books in PDF format that had been hanging out on my desktop for a while. I dragged them over and they loaded fine, so I may skip the store registration entirely right now. I think drag and drop will work fine for my purpose.
I hadn't really been planning on buying an eReader, but I did have a plan for justifying it if I ever did. I'm an SF magazine hoarder. I know magazines are meant to be disposable, but if there's a story I like I keep it like a book. So...my plan is to get electronic subscriptions to Clarkesworld and LCRW and all of the other magazines that I've been purposefully avoiding in order to keep from collecting them.
Helen wrote: "Thanks. Do they come off easily? When I'm at home for the weekend or school holidays I like to read it cover-less."They do come off very easily, and, like Jacen, I highly recommend them. Mine does not have the built-in light, but my wife's does and it's great. When I first got mine, I took the cover off most of the time when I was reading at home. I thought the "front cover" just got in the way. Then I realized that the front was actually meant to be bent back behind the kindle while you are reading (this goes against my every instinct as a book lover). Once I figured that out, I almost never take off the cover. Somehow the added thickness actually makes it more comfortable for me.
Thanks a lot Pete, I don't like to turn back my m-edge cover for the same reason! I have a lovely skin on my kindle and I like to see it when I'm at home. I think a green lighted cover maybe coming to stay then :)
I also initially wanted the sleek minamilistic look - but have already broken one naked kindle dropping it only from knee height at such an angle that it landed on its corner to the permanent detriment of its screen.....so now my 2nd kindle (replaced free thanks to the lovely Amazon people who guarantee that it should survive a drop from up to shoulder height) never leaves its cover!
Wow! Mine is in the cover when I'm out and about, have to admit I hadn't thought about it being damaged at home. Good point.
It was only 2 weeks old.....I was overseas at the time and distraught at the thought of being bookless for a month. But I luckily had my books backed up on my laptop, so read them with the free Kindle reader for PC. It was a very dark time for me....
I have the M-edge cover, it's fake leather but has a very acceptable feel, and is sleek to hold. The front folds back very nicely. I feel much safer now!!just to show you: I'm not touting any particular seller: http://www.amazon.com/M-Edge-Kindle-F...
I want to spend about a 100 bucks
No Kindle, No IPAD or any PAD
I want the battery to last a while.
Any Ideas?