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Originally Posted by Boston
Don't get me wrong, I still LOVE my Kindle 1. I love the book availability and pricing...especially since I bought a Kindle for my non-tech mom and we share our purchases.
But I like the freedom of getting books from other sources...especially the public library. I toyed with the idea of buying a Sony when Borders had them for $199...but thought it was still a lot to pay simply to avoid the extra steps to convert for my Kindle. Then with Amazon deleting unauthorized books (albeit ones they sold), I decided I didn't like the Big Brother possibility and decided a second wireless reader wouldn't be a bad idea if I could find one at a reasonable price.
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And I have to tell myself buying the Sony lightwedge cover defeats the purpose of an "inexpensive" supplemental reader  |
I'm one who also owns a K1 and a Sony 505. I do prefer reading with the Kindle, but have found the Sony handy to have because of its support for other formats. So far, I've read two PDFs on the Sony -- not a *good* experience, but acceptable enough -- and non-DRMed .lrf and .epub books. I don't plan to buy any DRMed .epub books as I'm boycotting ADE. I want a way of buying .epub without having to install ADE onto my computer.
My hubby bought me the lightwedge cover for the Sony. Yes, I have booklights, but they reflect off of the Kindle and Sony screens and cast light around in the car at night. The lightwedge keeps things nice and dark except for the screen I'm reading. If you do get it, you might want to (1) keep the thin plastic sleeve and slip it back onto the lightwedge when it's not in use and (2) buy or make an elastic band to hold the cover shut when you're transporting the Sony. These two tricks will help keep you from getting scratches on the lightwedge -- which are more annoying that dust.
I buy a decent number of multi-format books from Fictionwise and Webscriptions, so I will queue up the same book on both readers and shift from the Kindle to the Sony when it gets dark.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Boston
I immediately fell in love with its slim form factor. Holding the Sony, brought to life why others so harshly criticize the Kindle 1 as clunky and horrible (something I thought was exaggerated as it never bothered me). My Kindle 1 does look like a clunky toy next to the slim Sony.
When I first started reading on the Sony, three things bothered me enormously:
- Page turning - while the K1 was often criticized for the ease of accidental page turns, I never found this to be a real problem. I found that the small page turn keys on the Sony limited how I could hold the device and often hard to press because I have longer fingernails). I was able to adjust when reading in an upright position but still find reading while laying in bed awkward. Page refreshes also seem much more noticeable (but I think its because I am not firmly depressing the buttons).
- Fonts - With only 3 font sizes available, I found it harder to adjust to the Sony. Again, I was able to adjust although none of the font sizes reflect my natural preference. My Kindle has been instrumental in my ability to deny the need for reading glasses.
- PDF rendering was more distracting than I thought (I bought the Sony primarily so I could read ePub and pdf books without converting).
At first, I thought that getting the Sony was a big mistake but as I am getting used to it, so I decided to give it a fair shake by putting my Kindle aside for a week.
Happily, I find it will work fine for my intended purpose - a second reader to supplement my Kindle. I do love having page numbers and the idea of folders (although I haven't used it yet). The biggest reasons for staying with the Kindle as my primary reader are Whispernet (I like the NY Times News Updates and samples), ease of buying from Amazon and the ability to share books with my mom. But I can see why each reader has its own fans and why some think one is clearly is better than the other. For me, each has its benefits and I'm glad to have both until the perfect reader for me comes out.
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I do like the thinness and sleek metal appearance of the Sony reader, but I find it isn't quite as comfortable in my hand as the Kindle. Like you, I view it as a back-up reader. Since there are some books in the MobileRead library that are not yet available in every format, I find it handy to have a reader that understands the .lrf format. Yes, I know how to make books, but sometimes I just want to be lazy and read one that someone else has already made (Dr. Drib, are you listening?)
The PDF function is not one that I'd promote for the Sony. Yes, you can read PDFs on it, and for simple fiction books, the reflowing makes the font large enough to read, but results in very messy paragraphs.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Boston
I seldom keep books and thus don't manage collections on my reader...once I read a book, I usually just remove it since its not like I can pass it on to someone else (like I did with paper)  The exception is technical books and cookbooks which I still prefer to have in paper. |
I keep all the electronic books that I buy -- but I copy them off of the readers onto my hard drive. The only DRM-laden books I've gotten in the Sony format are freebies from the Sony store. This is a major consideration for me as no one has {yet} released a routine to remove the DRM. While I don't tend to re-read books very much, I do buy books faster than I can read them. So, in anticipation of a hardware failure and subsequent replacement, I want to have *some* hope of being able to read the books I've already paid for.
Congratulations on your purchase of the Sony reader. I can't say that I *need* to have more than one, but I do find it fun to have both. And, I'm planning on getting another -- probably one of the new 5-inch devices that are just coming to the market.