What was your ultimate reason for getting an E-Reader?

[carld]

Definitely the variable font sizes. Paper books were becoming a chore to read, Amazon's wide selection of books didn't hurt either.

[distant.star]

I haven't gotten an ereading device yet, but I do have a Kindle on order. While I never thought in terms of an "ultimate" reason why I've decided to try it, I'd have to say it largely points to one word:

Portability

I majored in English and Journalism in college so reading is necessarily a part of who I am. I have worked for book and magazine publishing companies. That said, it's easy to understand why I've been dragging boxes of books around for 40 years. A steady stream of acquiring, culling, relinquishing has been a seemingly inherent burden of my life. But now, a portable eight-ounce device shows up that promises to relieve this burden with no more penalty than the cost of 10 or so books.

I would have found it laughable 10 years ago if someone told me I could choose my 3500 favorite books and carry them around in my back pocket to read any time or place I wanted to. Thanks to Project Gutenberg, much of humanity's greatest wisdom is in digital format and can be part of my 3500 favorites -- at virtually no cost. And when I get tired of the heavies, I can flip a switch and instantly jump into one of my friend Judith Skillings' little murder mysteries. In a lot of ways, it feels miraculous.

Anyway, that's my expectation. If it turns out to be only half that, I'll still be ahead.

[ficbot]

Definitely the storage issue. Real estate is a fortune here, I just don't have the space for tons of books. Plus I like the idea that I can carry more than one book around with me whenever I want.

A secondary reason was to have something to do at the gym. I am not a big music person, so having the text to speech feature on the Kindle was the main reason I upgraded from my Sony. I like that I can listen when I want to listen, then immediately resume reading the regular way (unlike an audio book, which is only listening)

[Clancy_s]

To be able to carry many books in a small package (I travel alot).

[bjones6416]

Originally Posted by distant.star

I haven't gotten an ereading device yet, but I do have a Kindle on order. While I never thought in terms of an "ultimate" reason why I've decided to try it, I'd have to say it largely points to one word:

Portability

I majored in English and Journalism in college so reading is necessarily a part of who I am. I have worked for book and magazine publishing companies. That said, it's easy to understand why I've been dragging boxes of books around for 40 years. A steady stream of acquiring, culling, relinquishing has been a seemingly inherent burden of my life. But now, a portable eight-ounce device shows up that promises to relieve this burden with no more penalty than the cost of 10 or so books.

I would have found it laughable 10 years ago if someone told me I could choose my 3500 favorite books and carry them around in my back pocket to read any time or place I wanted to. Thanks to Project Gutenberg, much of humanity's greatest wisdom is in digital format and can be part of my 3500 favorites -- at virtually no cost. And when I get tired of the heavies, I can flip a switch and instantly jump into one of my friend Judith Skillings' little murder mysteries. In a lot of ways, it feels miraculous.

Anyway, that's my expectation. If it turns out to be only half that, I'll still be ahead.

I think you're going to find it will exceed your expectations. You are going to be thrilled!

[theducks]

I hated reading the Baen Free Library on a Monitor, way too heavy

My book collection was always being shelved out of order (still looking for 2 crates of books that got moved in a remodel) .

The common reason, ran out of house space for more books

[GA Russell]

I wanted to read so many books that are available for free on the internet.

I tried once to read a book on my monitor, and very quickly decided that that was not for me.

[daffy4u]

Space, the final frontier (more like the "limited frontier" because I don't have room for pbooks in my condo... I have a bunch in storage).

I decided a couple of years ago I wanted to get back into reading and having ready access to just about anything I want to read in seconds makes it easy.

My aching back (less weight in my purse or backpack).

For me ebooks are cheaper because I buy mostly new fiction releases. I prefer to buy books as I'm not much of a library person (though I'm giving it a try right now but the wait lists are crazy long).

I just like gadgets.

[Boston]

Portability and font-sizes

I take public transportation to/from work...and my eyes were showing the first signs of getting old

[Boston]

Originally Posted by daffy4u

I just like gadgets.

Oh yeah...that one too

[MR. Pockets]

I'm not sure which order;
1. Ereaders are really cool.
2. I really like reading and how am I supposed to take 5+ books on trips with me in my one bag? (I am in a family of 11 so space is an issue... )
3. There are a lot of free classics available that I had been wanting to read, I can't afford to buy them all, and there is no way that I'm going to read them on a regular screen.
4. I can carry my ENTIRE library with my in a single device weighing less than a pound.

[Solicitous]

Essentially it came down to two major reasons, 1) lack of space for new pbooks, and 2) the ability to buy instantly and have it then and there....oh and a third reason, an ereader suddenly gave me the ability to access a wealth of different pieces of literature (reading on a computer screen isn't my cup of tea).

[L.J. Sellers]

Convenience, free samples, to see what everyone was raving about, to be part of the e-reader community. Love all of it.
L.J.

[JeremyR]

Free books.

Literally I was going to place an order for $50 of public domain books printed (a couple from the Planetary Stories line from Paizo and a couple of A. Merritt's stuff) and saw that they had a new Kindle for $139. So I changed gears and got the Kindle.

It's actually pretty depressing that most of my favorite authors are not only dead, but they've been dead long enough to be out of copyright in most countries. But I don't like most modern writing. Then again, I don't really like modern movies or TV shows, either. And the new books I do read are almost entirely historical fiction...

[viviena]

Ultimate reason? Well, for the longest time I had stuck to paper books, not really willing to consider the merits of ereaders. Locally, that ereaders had been fairly expensive and not available in retail until recently also counted. However, I walked into a bookstore one day, saw and played with a demo of the Kobo, and was in awe.

I know that nowadays the Kobo is considered a very basic ereader compared to the others (I'm very much coveting the new Sonys at the moment), but now as it was then, I was all amazement. The clarity of the screen! The lightness and slenderness of the device! The ease of use! The digital rendering looking so much like actual print! Oh, I was completely taken with the little device, and bought it on the spot. It was having that hands-on experience which swayed me.

I feel like I've been converted overnight to the merits of ereaders, now that I have the chance to experience these merits first-hand. I can store all my books in the one device and carry it around, choosing whatever I want to read on a whim. I can read outside without having to take along a laptop or a heavy book. I can read my books across different devices, if I so wished. I can finally buy more things to read without feeling guilty for adding to the clutter in my home. The only thing that's stopping me from going completely the ebook route is geographic restrictions, but I'm hoping that situation will be improved within the next few years.