I am just getting interested in picking up an ereader for me and my wife. I have no idea what I should be getting. Heck, until I stumbled across this site last week I thought the Kindle was the ONLY reader out there and I was waiting for B&N/Google to come up with a little competition.
Here is what I am looking for:
I am a US resident.
I travel out of the country for extended times fairly often but on many of those occasions I may not have ANY access to the internet and if I do have some it will be somewhat limited. I do always travel with my laptop so using the cell phone connection like the kindle is a big plus but not a requirement. It must also be somewhat rugged considering it will travel in my carry on with me an awful lot.
I mainly read science fiction or fantasy.
I currently have quite a few books in adobe format I acquired a while ago and would like them to still be usable.
Size and weight is not much of an issue for me. Anything less than 2lbs is not going to put a big strain on me and be somewhat easy to handle.
I do not have a tight timeframe so I can wait for something to be released like the nook if it is worth the wait. I want something no later than Feb.
I really like the eink look and how it simulates a real book but since I have not used any other devices I cannot compare eye strain. I do not read that often but when I do I will read an entire 400 page novel in two to three days (and I am not a fast reader) so I need something I can stare at for many hours.
I like the not taking concept but only for the novelty of it. It is possible I will use this for classes at a later date but not really looking for that at this point.
Price is a big issue for me. Most books I purchase cost about 6 dollars and I keep hearing that AFTER spending several hundred dollars on the medium I will still need to purchase each book at almost 10 bucks a pop. That seems somewhat excessive since the delivery of such a medium is much cheaper than the paper equivalent. However the portability and access may be worth the investment.
Lastly, I was thinking of purchasing 2 units, one for me and one for my wife, and would greatly prefer that both of us have access to our libraries at the same time. I hear that the kindle can do this but I have some other reservations about that reader I will go into in a minute.
I also really like the ability to look up words or phrases and my wife will REALLY like this feature.
Honestly, after reading these forums the kindle seems to be the reader of choice for many but I have a hard time buying into anything that is completely controlled by a single non open source entity. It is the reason I will never own anything that has an apple logo on it, they practice far too much control over content and devices that you OWN. That kind of control also has a way of snuffing out the small man and creativity in favor of mass market and profits. I believe the best thing that can come out of these devices is the end of major publishers and the rise of self released content where the author receives the money, not the execs. All things considered it seems one of Sony readers may be the best for me but I am not sure if that’s really true or even which one if it is.
Apologies for the really lengthy text. I just want to get all my needs straight so I can get the best device.
in advance
EDIT: WOW my formatting looked like *&^(…… had to church it up a little
