Recomendations on a reader for a Fast book reader?

[dragoncat]

Hi everyone,

I've been researching ereaders for about a month now. Still haven't found exactly what I would like. I am a fast reader. (abt. 50-75 pages an hour depending on if it's hardback or paper back. Also depends on how long I've waited for a new book by any favorite author to come out! Those get devoured at 80-90 pages an hour. ) I mainly read sci-fi/fantasy, mixed genre, classics, and suspense/horror. I like both older and new stuff.

No one within a 45-60 minute drive has any readers for me to check out. (One of the cons of living in an area with lots of little towns.) Due (not do, sorry ) to kids in school and the hubby's work schedule trying to get further out isn't feasible any time soon. I really don't want to put 2 or 3 ereaders on the credit cards to "try them out" and then have to deal with returning them.

My main worry with a 5 inch screen is that I'll spend more time turning pages than actually reading. I'd like to keep the total cost under $300. Any help or advice you can give me would be greatly appreciated! Thanks

[AnemicOak]

If there's no Target or Wal-Mart close enough to check out a Sony 505 I guess you could maybe check out the videos on Youtube of various readers and maybe get an idea :shrugs: that's all that comes to me immediately.

FWIW I read fairly quickly (3-6 books a week) and haven't found current readers to be a problem. IIRC it took me about 20-30 'pages' to get accustomed using the 505 back when I got it a couple years ago.

[dragoncat]

I've got wal-mart close by, but none of them actually carry any ereaders. Got some really odd looks from my local one. The people back in our electronics dept. had no idea what I was asking about. (Of course that's not that unusual at our store!) I've looked at you-tube videos, but that doesn't give me any actual hands on input. Which is what I'm hoping people on here will be able to provide!

The closest Target to me is almost 2 hours away. (4 hour round trip, nor really something I can do during the week with kids in elementary school.)

Thanks for the advice though!

[Terisa de morgan]

I'm a quite fast reader too (perhaps a normal paperback in 4 hours if I like it a lot), and turning pages hasn't been an annoyance for me in a PDA (or an iPhone now), so 5" wouldn't be an annoyance (6" as my Cybook isn't it either).

[sassanik]

I don't know that I would say one ereader would be better than another for a fast reader. I think what type of books is probably more the issue, and what formats they are available in.

I have a EB1150 and a Cool-er and the time it takes to turn a page on the screen is not very long on either of them.

I would check out Fictionwise and Books on Board as well as Amazons ebook inventories and make sure they carry what type of books you like to read and then pick which reader you like based on that. Though if you are willing to take the time to convert stuff what formats your ereader reads is not as big a deal.

Amy

[wallcraft]

I don't think the page turn will end up being an issue. I have never timed a page turn in a real book, but it is often said here that an EInk page turn takes no longer than turning a page in a real book (you may have to make more turns per book with EInk though, depending on the font size you use). What can be annoying to some is the inverse flash on each page turn that keeps the screen from ghosting. However, for most people the page turn is a non-issue within the first few minutes of use.

Another alternative is the Ectaco Jetbook, which uses a 5" reflective grayscale LCD. So its page turns are very fast. These cost less than $200, and there is a new Ectaco Jetbook Lite about to be introduced for $150. The battery might only last you a day or two with heavy reading. The other issue with the Jetbook is that it does not support any DRM (encryption). Many new ebooks are restricted to a small set of devices by DRM, and DRM-free devices are out of luck. However, Ectaco appears to be adding eReader (B&N) DRM support to its readers. It is also possible to remove the DRM from most ebook formats.

[DrMoze]

I have a SOny 300 (and a 505, ok, and a 500 too!) and it has a completely comfortable reading experience. I would say there is a tiny bit more hesitation when pressing the pageturn button on the 300 than the 505. But the flashing part is fine--the new page is ready when your eyes get back up to the top of the screen. I simply found a rhythm where I press the pageturn when I start the last line of text, and the screen flashes right when I finish the line. It's completely unconscious now. My opinion is, don't worry about the "speed" of page turning. It doesn't slow me down at all, and I'm a fairly fast reader. And the 300 is a great portable e-ink device--feels solid, fits in my front pants/jeans pocket.

[kelly1010]

I have a sony 505 and never even notice the page turns. It probably takes a second, but to me, it's really no slower than me turning a page myself.

[Elfwreck]

I read sci-fi paperbacks at about 100 pages/hour, and I've had no problems with (well-formatted) ebooks on the Sony Reader.

Loading the book for the first time can take a while (10 sec-2 min, depending on filesize and type), and some badly-made PDFs take longer to turn pages than I'm comfortable with, but all the reflow formats (LRF, ePub, RTF, txt) work fine; the pages turn quicker than I can turn paper pages.

Where you'll notice the page turn speed is when you want to back up three or four pages to check some detail; in those cases, the page turning seems slow. (In paper books, very few people flip back one page at a time; they grab two or three and flip through them. Ebooks don't have that option.)

[LDBoblo]

Speed isn't an issue if you only read linearly and don't skip around much. Any reader would be suitable.

5" is a little on the small side for reasonably-formatted book blocks. Even 6" is a little smaller than would be ideal, but it's doable. I make my books for my POS-505 using 8-9pt typefaces and it works reasonably well...but some would complain that the text is too small. If you deal with low-quality formats like epub though, you don't need to worry about size because you can just resize/reflow the text.