I'm not sure I can afford to buy anything just yet, but would be interested in knowing what's out there and what might be up his alley (and thereby what I'd have to save for). My dad is frequently interested in some of the books I have but has no way to read e-books other than sitting at his computer and reading from the computer monitor. While it's nice and large, it's not portable at all. And every time I come across something he'd be interested in, I've been wondering about what e-reader (or tablet, should that be better) would work best.
Here's what characteristics pertain to selecting a reader for him:
- he reads frequently on trips, may be outside, indoors, various levels of lighting but since he's used to reading physical books (where he has to sit next to a lamp or have a flashlight), an integrated light isn't essential
- he's interested in a lot of epubs and pdfs, and some of the epubs have pictures or charts (the pdfs definitely would have the occasional picture or chart, formatting, etc.)
- larger size would probably be better as he does wear glasses for reading and has a hard time with tiny print stuff
- bookstore agnostic, as I have a lot of custom-created files and free/public domain that I'd want to add to it for him, and don't want the hdd reserved for a particular store
- capability to support DRM--though I don't think any of our book sources have it, there's one store I'm still waiting on word back from and he'd definitely buy some from them so would like to have that noted (most devices do, I would think)
- good battery or easy way to charge away from computer (this may rule out some of the ones that have to be ordered from Europe as we're in the US and I found that my e-book reader takes FOREVER to charge using a US plug since it's much lower voltage than the European plug that came with it--which of course doesn't fit any of the wall outlets in our house, lol)
- he is not very computer savvy--we have only basic phones in our house, he's barely gotten the hang of texting; while parents' computer runs Linux, I installed it, and he's never used an Apple product in his life (beyond being frustrated trying to do basic tasks on my grandparents' Mac the one time he tried), so the easier it is to transfer files via USB (should see it as a folder he can copy/paste into, and if he can create his own subfolders that would be best!) the better
- I can't afford to pay too much (or him, should he decide this is his investment to make and not a gift from me), so while I don't have a definite budget in mind, would like to have general prices noted for any suggestions
Let me know if any of the above details are incompatible with each other (and if so, what am I having to sacrifice either way?). What suggestions do you have? Any things I should keep in mind?
I really appreciate you all being willing to give this advice--it's come in very handy for me before and I've been quite satisfied with my selections both times I've asked for help choosing, so I have good hopes here!
