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Here is what I would tell them. Feel free to use this or edit it to your needs. Keep in mind that I write this only about the e-ink e-book readers.
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E-book readers are devices designed to read digital books, like a digitial camera is designed to take digital pictures, or a MP3 player is designed to play digital music. Since e-book readers have one main purpose, they are easier to use than a personal computer. E-book readers work along side your personal computer like a digital camera does. For most e-book readers, you will need a computer to buy and load books onto the reader (the Kindle can buy and receive books wirelessly without a computer, if you are within the Whispernet service area).
Each e-book reader generally has its own format and store for e-books. Most of the e-books can also be read on a regular computer with the right software. Some e-book readers can read regular computer documents and there is software to covert computer documents to e-books, but that takes some learning. Also, most e-books support pictures (but no color yet on the e-book readers).
What can an e-book reader do?
- Read books! There are more and more books being offered as e-books, even classics and out of copyright books.
- View pictures. But no color.
- Store hundreds or thousands of books on something the size of a book, carry your whole e-book library with you.
- Automatically remembers where you stopped reading each book.
- Change the size of the text for more confortable reading.
- Read a book with one hand, or no hands. You won't have to hold your book open. And you just need to press a button when you want to turn the page.
- Some e-book readers allow you to bookmark locations in your e-books.
- Some e-book readers allow you to look up the definition of a word you are reading.
That is great. But if I don't have all the pages in front of me, won't it be slow to flip through the book?
The designers have thought about this problem. E-books have tables of contents that allow you to jump to a section of the book with a few clicks (well, some poorly made e-books don't), and the e-book readers let you jump ahead or behind by large numbers of pages. Some e-book readers even allow you to jump to a page number.
Can I read in the dark?
No. Just like a paper book, you will need light to read by. The one exception is that Sony offers an e-book reader with a built-in reading light, and a leather case with a built-in reading light for one of their other e-book readers.
What are prices like for e-books?
Mostly e-books are about the price of paper back books if that edition is available, or the price of a hard back. However, this situation has been improving and there are several stores (like Amazon) that offer large savings and better prices than the paper versions of books.
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