Would an E-reader be a good fit for me?

[plasticslug]

I am very new to the e-reader scene. To be honest I dont read many books. But i am very interested in starting up.

Why I think I need a e-reader (kindle)
1. I have a desk and a bed when it comes to space, no room for books.
2. easy on the eyes.

I don't travel (don't necessarily need books on the fly to download while abroad)
I am not looking to buy a lot of books (I am cheap) not to say I am going to pirate books, but I plan finding legal (library), free publications (classics) etc. I have read that there are multiple places that offer these kinds of books.

I dont plan on taking this every where I go, mostly going to be at home.

Then I have the wifi vs 3g, having 3g free for life sounds great, but I have an overpriced phone that takes care of my 3g needs. I also dont plan on carrying the kindle around, so using it check the web would not really be a viable option for me.

For those who have 3g, is it as great as everyone makes it out to be? do you actually use it on a regular basis?

I dont know anyone who has a e-reader and this is all so new to me, I just want to make sure its enjoyable to use and read.

Would an e-reader be a good fit for me?
How do you use yours, and what do you love about it?

[wallcraft]

It is now common to have WiFi and/or 3G, but their reason for existing is to tie you to one ebook store. If you use the reader only at home and you have WiFi, then 3G is not needed at all. All ebook readers support "side-loading" ebooks via USB from a PC, this is your only option with some of them and is all you need. A simple ebook reader is a good fit to your situation, if you can afford ~$100-150 to read books.

Lending library ebooks require Adobe ePub support, which rules out the Kindle 3 WiFi - although it is otherwise a good fit to your needs (you can ignore the WiFi if you like). Check that your local library has a good selection of ebooks before weighting this high in your criteria.

Good options for you to consider are the Sony PRS-350 (the best 5" E Ink device), the Nook WiFi or Sony PRS-650 (6" Ink) and the Jetbook Lite (5" reflective LCD).

I read a lot, and I now read books only on an E Ink device. It is good to use at home and also on travel. If you don't travel then battery life isn't as big a deal and the JetBook Lite might be a good choice.

[ATDrake]

For the price of a Wi-Fi Kindle, and given your considerations 1) and 2) and the fact that you mainly plan on reading classics, I'd say that it would be worth it for you.

I myself have the older 3G model, and I practically never use the 3G, though lately I've started sending myself samples via wireless rather than downloading and transferring them via USB out of sheer laziness. Quite frankly, web-browsing on an e-ink screen is rather slow and kind of a pain.

Personally, the best aspects of the Kindle for me are:

a) Portability. I take public transit, and it's great to be able to carry around dozens, if not hundreds, of books with me to read and be able to switch from one book to another until I've found one that suits my mood.

b) Adjustability. Being able to set the font size up or down for most books (PDF and Topaz format excluded), as well as being able to adjust margins and line-spacing, and such, is great. The Kindle lets me comfortably read books either with or without my glasses, which helps to give my eyes a rest.

c) Variety. I've gotten literally hundreds of free books from the time-limited publisher e-book promos alone, not to mention having access to a whole lot of public domain and indie book giveaways. Plus I've picked up a lot of fairly cheap backlist books during sales, some of which would have to be hunted up in a used bookstore if I wanted to read a paper copy.

Of course, not everything's available and I'm nowhere near giving up paper books, which I still love, but I'm perfectly pleased to support authors I like by getting their sale-priced electronic editions, as well as have the oppportunity to try new ones out at zero initial cost to myself.

If you happen to live in an area where there are retail stores like Best Buy or Target or Borders which carry any model of e-reader, perhaps you might like to go over and try out their display units; see if you like the general functionality and features of whatever they've got, even if it's not the model you have in mind.

As for library use, check to see what's available in your area. Some libraries are better stocked than others as far as e-books go, though the Philadelphia Free Library which allows non-resident access for $15 per year is always an option.

I will warn you that in order to put most library books on the Kindle, you will have to become familiar with using certain scripts to modify the downloaded files so that they will be compatible with the Kindle, which does not support any of the common library e-book formats natively.

This can be a legal grey area in various places, so we can't discuss it in detail for the forum's protection, but it's fairly easy to find the information to do so online. If you don't think you're up to it, or wouldn't feel comfortable circumventing copy-restriction even for fair use purposes, you may wish to consider a different e-reader which will support DRM-ed ePub and PDF files if you have your heart set on library use.

Finally, we have a very nice library of free classics right here, contributed by our very own members who take the time to hand-format them to display nicely on a variety of devices. Just click the E-Books link in the top blue navbar to see what's available.

Hope this helps, and welcome to MobileRead!

[jehane]

Given your needs, I would suggest one of the epub readers over a Kindle. Then you don't need to do anything grey to read library books. Definitely go e-ink to be easy on the eyes. If you're happy to sideload (I usually do it while recharging) then lack of wi-fi or 3g is not an issue.

I have a Sony 300, which I love. I really like the look of the 650, which has a larger screen and not too much larger physically, but am not looking to upgrade just yet. The 300 is small and light, but with a sufficiently large screen that I am comfortable reading off. It feels sturdy and I prefer the buttons to the touchscreen.

Personally I'm not a fan of the kindle or nook design - the keyboard and additional screen on those are wasted space for me, and would get in my way. I only want to read, not surf the web, or write, or anything else.

See if you can try a few out at some shops and see what feels comfortable for you, or perhaps if you let us know your location there are some members nearby willing to show off their toys. There is a thread for that, but it's probably a bit dated and some members may no longer be active or checking that thread.

[mr ploppy]

If you don't read much, you need to remember that a Kindle will cost you about the same as 20 new books, or 50+ if you buy them second hand. More than that if you resold them all on Ebay after you had read them. I average about a book a week, so for me that would be about a year's worth of books just to buy the Kindle even if you only ever read free books on it.

I bought mine so that I could read books that either don't exist in paper form or are too expensive on the secondary market. For me it was worth the asking price, but I did read them on an old PDA for a few months before I decided I wanted one.

[Worldwalker]

You might want to ask this question down on "what should I buy?" -- it's the section for exactly what you want to know. Scroll down a bit; it's in the device section.

I wouldn't recommend a Kindle. You want to read library books -- they're often in epub format, which Kindles can't handle. The "free 3g" is only for buying books from the Kindle Store while on the go; if you're not planning to buy books while sitting on the subway, that's not something you'll want to pay for. Also, I personally find that keyboard annoying. I have no interest in typing while reading (obviously people who need to take notes, such as for class, feel otherwise).

Before I got my ebook reader, I read Project Gutenberg books on the computer. The difference is astonishing. E-ink is the best thing that ever happened to reading since the page. As one of those people with limited library space (it's at the point where the floor is at risk; when we moved, it was the books that nearly sprained P.O.D.S.'s forklift when they took our pod off the truck) being able to tuck at least some of my books into a pocket-sized dingus matters a lot. I'd give up one of my lesser fingers before I gave up my ebook reader.

By the way, you've probably asked the wrong people whether you should get an ebook reader. Of course you should get one! If we didn't think everyone should have one, we'd probably be on some other forum. I don't know how I ever lived without mine. Everyone should have one. Maybe more than one.

When you get yours and you're looking for free ebooks, check down in MR's own library, then try sites like Project Gutenberg, ManyBooks, Feedbooks, etc. Those are my primary sources of free public-domain books. There's also the Baen Free Library, if you like science fiction (I do). Baen also sells me a fair number of books, as does Smashwords, O'Reilly, and the occasional indie. I have a Sony Reader and I've never used the Sony store; I couldn't tell you how. There are too many other places to get books -- great books -- that don't involve me signing my soul over to a vendor.

[Catlady]

I also wanted an e-reader mostly to be able to read free books at home. So I recently purchased a Jetbook Lite, and I couldn't be more pleased with it. It's inexpensive (currently $90 at Newegg) and basic; it reads a variety of formats, so in addition to all the readily available public domain books, I can easily borrow library books, and I can get books from BN, Borders, Kobo, Sony, etc.

[DixieGal]

I think you should get a used Kindle 1 or 2. It will let you download books directly from Amazon. And you can get tons of free stuff for it, both here at our site and where me,beers pop in reporting free or bargain books. (there is a special forum here just for that purpose)

So this way, you have a very low startup cost, in case you find that you do not enjoy it. No buyers remorse is a good thing.

[Jack Tingle]

I would suggest one of the new Sonys with the Pearl displays or a jetBook. All work with library books and have good displays.

A Kindle will not work with library books unless you're willing to do Bad Things(SM).

I like the 5" display size, but the quality and legebility of the Pearl eInk display is worth the extra cost and extra inch. I don't think the previous generations of eInk displays was worth it, compared to the jetBook's B&W LCD. A WiFi capable unit is nice, but I've never felt it was worth a huge premium. Ditto for the 3G. My K3 is 3G, and I have serious questions about whether it was worth the extra $50.

Regards,
Jack Tingle

[DixieGal]

Oh right, I forgot the bit about no simple library downloads with Kindle.

[boxcorner]

Welcome to MR.

I bought a Sony PRS-650, primarily because it supports ePub format, has a touch-screen and I had confidence in the brand. The build quality really is excellent. This reader enables me to read free e-books with ease, on its superb e-ink display. Like you, I wanted to be able to read classics. WiFi is of no interest to me, because transferring large numbers of books, that have been downloaded to my PC, is so simple, it is unlikely that I am ever going to run short of books to read when I'm travelling. So, I am not interested in using my reader to shop on-line. What I particularly like about this reader is the way I can quickly and easily access words in the dictionary, by double-tapping them. I find the user interface generally to be very intuitive. This reader has two English dictionaries and ten bilingual dictionaries, plus plenty of memory and two expansion slots.

[Rich_D]

My first piece of advice is to hit a couple stores that sell ereaders and get some hands on experience. WalMart, BestBuy and Target all sell devices from multiple vendors. It doesn't matter which books you can load if you don't like using the device. There are plenty of free books out there in all formats, but if you want to read current releases, get one that supports epub. Most libraries support that format using Adobe Digital Editions and you'll be able to easily sideload the books.

I bought my nook before the wifi only version was available but if I had a choice, I would have gone wifi only. I don't travel and have never thought "I need this book and I need it now!" ;-) and after 6 months, I find I could do without the wifi as well.

[GraceKrispy]

You sound a lot like me in some respects, and I'm for sony all the way. It reads library books, plenty of free books out there to read (as well as inexpensive books). I don't need 3G or wifi. I've got my eye on a new Sony 650, but, for now, I love love love my 505.

Any reason you're only thinking of Kindle? I think one of its highest selling points is that you can easily download from Amazon, but it doesn't sound like that's what you're looking for (although there are free books on Amazon as well, from time to time)

[wvcherrybomb]

You could just download Kindle for PC or one of the other free Kindle apps.

There are thousands of free books always available and Amazon offers temporary freebies nearly everyday. There are lots of blogs out there that will list all the books that are free each day.

When I do a search at Amazon's Kindle store I always choose to have the results listed from lowest to highest in price. This will show you all the free books first.

[plasticslug]

Well I went out today and got my hands on many of the e-reader models out there.

Started with the nook, screen looked excellent and I spent several minutes reading page after page. With the screen tech on these things its so easy on the eyes. It actually feel good looking at them, as my eyes are used to my ultra-bright tv/monitor.

What I did not like was the ridiculous lcd screen at the bottom. Why have this? I dont need to see the book covers in full color. The menus to me were a bit cumbersome. I also did not care about the weight, holding it for several minutes it felt a bit heavy for this type of technology.

The kindle was next, I liked the layout, same great screen. I didnt care too much for the keyboard as I know its not something I will ever need to read a book. I liked the over all feel of it, but did not like the whole plugged into amazon and they whole (buy our books!) vibe i got from it. If I had to go the extra mile to format epub books I probably wouldnt have to much trouble with it.

Lastly was the Sony Reader. I picked it up and fell in love with it, its a few oz lighter than the nook and almost the same weight as the kindle. It felt great, no silly keyboard or color lcd screen to deal with. The opening menu was intuitive and easy to follow.

Then I saw the price and almost dropped it, around $250.... looked around and saw a $150 price tag and became excited but soon realized that it was the pocked edition (not trying to save space here, so small size is not important to me) $250 for an ereader is a no go for me.

Overall I feel that these companies are pumping way too much technology into something seemingly simple as an E-reader.
Lets give it GPS, radio, 3/g, internet radio, games, Hi-def, surround sound, etc etc etc. lol...

Then once you turn it on you get slammed with with the idea of how easy it is to buy our books etc. I kind of want to be off the grid and not be bothered once I get my e-reader.

So I want the nice ink technology that looks so great, an easy interface where you turn it on, find your books directory and simply read the book. I like the price range of $140 (under $100 would be fantastic)

Any other suggestions out there?