This past weekend I finally finished reading a novel in an eBook format.
eBook stands for electronic book. Right now the most popular of such books is the Amazon Kindle. Technically, the Kindle is a reader, or just the hardware that displays the files that are the actual books.
I have to say that I enjoyed the experience. I downloaded the book, First to Fight (StarFist Series #1) by David Sherman & Dan Cragg through Barnes & Noble’s eBookstore and onto reading programs for both my computer and BlackBerry.
I liked the fact that I could read the books either on my computer or my phone. The phone part came in very handy for those moments when any other time I would not have thought about reading because I didn’t have my book with me. I could become very accustomed to that feature.
Since my fairly positive experience with reading an eBook, I’ve been mulling over something, getting a dedicated reader. Right now two main readers exsist: the Amazon Kindle and the Barnes and Noble nook.
Both use an eInk display which does not act like the screen on your phone or computer. Instead it uses power sparingly by changing the text on the screen and then waiting for the next command to change.
Both connect to cellular data networks to download books onto the device.
The Kindle was first to the party and is already on it’s second revision. The Amazon Kindle Store has over 350,000 books available for download along with many magazines and newspapers. The Kindle uses a hardware based keyboard for typing in books to search for or adding notes to a book.
The nook started shipping last week and from the reports it is a worthy competitor to the Kindle, but needs some polishing still. The nook uses a color touchscreen LCD in place of hardware keys for typing and navigation.
The nook has two major advantages over the Kindle. In addition to the cellular modem, the nook also can access WiFi networks to download books.
Second, the nook is built to read content in the ePUB and PDF formats natively. This opens up more stores and websites to download or purchase books from than just the manufacturer of the reader.
The nook still needs to flesh out parts of store, but it definitely bears watching.
My dilemma is first do I need to get a reader and second which one?
Time will tell on that.
