Ereader Basics: How to Buy an Ereader

There are all sort of quotes out there these days mentioning that ereaders are gaining ground and that something like 6% of the American population plan on purchasing an ereader in the next 12 months. So, what the heck is this ereader thing anyway?

Here are some highlights to get your feet wet.

A few ereaders on the market: Kindle, Sony Ereader, Kobo. (And various models in all three.)

Kobo

Some ereaders are proprietary (the Kindle) and do not believe in free love. In other words, you have to use the device’s website to do things like convert files, download onto your reader, etc. Other devices will allow you to place any file on them. Drag and drop and voila! Some ereaders have WiFi capabilities meaning you do not have to download ebooks onto your computer and then drag and drop them onto your connected ereader. You simply go online with your ereader and download the book. (WiFi capabilities generally costs more.) Some ereaders will also allow you to place music files on them (earphone plug ins). This feature is also handy if you happen to have an audiobook in digital format. Wow!

Some of the ereaders allow for annotations/highlighting to be made in the ebook. Some don’t. Handy for editing or making notes.

Cases and cases with lights are also available for all ereaders. As well, generally, there is a selection of colours for the actual ereader.

Remember, the more add-ons and features you want in your ereader, the higher your price is going to be. However, it’s a pretty good time to buy an ereader as the prices have just dropped, dropped, and then dropped again. As well, the product you are getting now is even better/fancier than it was six months ago.

Sony eReader in case

Ereader Screens: All ereaders at this point are black and white. The new Kobo does have a bit of a colour screen at the bottom–but this is just for viewing cover art–and it is an LCD screen and not eInk. (Your actual ebook will not be shown in colour.) EInk is actually pretty cool. It is not backlit like an LCD screen, thus reducing eye strain. In fact, it is not lit at all (unless you get some sort of a light) and so you cannot read eInk in the dark. I generally describe eInk as a really, really, really clear etch-a-sketch.

As well, some of the newer ereaders have touch screens. So, you touch the screen to turn the page, etc.

Ebooks: Many books can now be purchased from online booksellers such as Amazon, Kobo, Chapters, and Barnes and Noble. You can also find them on author websites. Many aspiring authors are also breaking in (or trying to) by self-publishing ebooks and selling them online. You can also find free ebooks for books like classics where their copyright has expired. Many public libraries are also lending ebooks now. (The selection may be slim at the moment, but it will improve.) And finally, you can steal them. I don’t recommend that method. Why? Not because you could get a computer virus you rightly deserve, but because you are taking royalty money from the pocket of an author. If enough people do this, guess what? Your favourite author may no longer be able to AFFORD to write those books you love. So, if you like an author and like a book, PAY FOR IT, please.

When purchasing an ereader, check out whether your ereader will read only epub files, or whether it will read other files like PDFs, Word files, etc. (Not everything is created as an epub file and you may have to do some conversion whenever you want to upload an ebook to your ereader.)

Ereader size: The storage size is amazing. I have a smaller ereader and it holds about 250 books. Some of the devices will hold twice that–or more!

Ereaders are heavier than a paperback, but lighter than a hardcover. They tend to be a bit wider than a paperback, but are quite thin. You can generally check one out in your local electronics store.

Battery life: Generally they last for about two weeks–of constant reading. It also depends whether you do a complete shutdown of the device when you let it sit for a few days or just put it to sleep. The battery life is nothing to sneeze at.

I think that about covers the basics. If you have questions, let me know and I’ll do my best to answer them.

Want to dare to compare?