So, being a life-long wearer of glasses, and afflicted with light sensitivity and migraines, I have done most of my e-reading on devices with eInk screens. The only time I read on a tablet was for books with maps, photos, illustrations, etc., and for magazines. But reading on a tablet after 10 pm was sure to generate a migraine. Also, the dictionary/translation/Wikipedia integration on the Paperwhite fitted my reading habits the best - I read mainly 18th, 19th, and early 20th century 'classics' and poetry from all ages. Hence I have to look up or translate a lot of words & phrases - which the PW allowed me to do without leaving my page. I fumed at the storage limits on the PW - I have a lot of "Complete Works of ..." collections that are huge - but I enjoy jumping from one work to another and want to have them on the device, not in the cloud.
Then I got a Kindle Fire HDX 8.9" with its marvelous screen (reduced glare & ability to customize light levels) and superb Kindle reading app (that incorporates dictionary/translation/Wikipedia look-up) -- and experienced a transforming tablet reading episode ... [cue violins]
Last weekend, I was reading the NYT BR on my HDX - and was intrigued by the review of "The Ghost of the Mary Celeste" -- which discussed the long literary fascination with this event, with authors offering possible scenarios/explanations. The reviewer mentioned that Conan Doyle had penned a short story early in his career that offered an explanation for the abandoned ship. This made my remember that Conan Doyle had written scads of short stories (mysteries, sci fi, adventure, etc.) before creating Sherlock Holmes. So I opened "The Complete Works of Conan Doyle" and read 'F. Habakuk Jephson's Statement' and several other early short stories. Conan Doyle used a Scottish setting in many of these stories, and I was frequently looking up dialect words as I read. Then I encountered a word (pringled) that was not in the dictionary.
I had gifted myself with an online subscription to the OED this past year (they had an Xmas sale) - so I opened the OED to look up 'pringle' -- those familiar with the OED recall that after defining the word, the OED lists the first appearance of a word with a snippet from the book/magazine/etc., and then lists its usage through the years with further literary appearances. Imagine my glee when I discovered that the first attribution listed in the OED for 'pringle' was the line in the short story that I was currently reading! It was a full-circle reading experience -- from the present to the source back to the present.
And all done on one device. I find that my reading is shifting away from the Paperwhite to the HDX -- it's not perfect, but the worlds it opens up on one device is phenomenal.
I'm sure other readers have had similar experiences with other brands of tablets. I'm not ready yet for ebooks with built-in hyperlinks to videos, etc. linked to the text, but I do greatly appreciate having the ability to explore what I'm reading -- immediately -- and without having to use other devices.
I've been reading since I was 4 or thereabouts -- if I had had this capability as a child -- I just can't imagine it.
