I'm wondering which ebook reader is the best fit for me. I'll be downloading most of my ebooks from the internet not actually buying them. I wanted to know which ebook reader should I get considering the availability of ebooks formats.

Thank You!!

Do you want:

EInk - dedicated (closed) OS to the reader; longer battery life; readable in direct sunlight.
There are many eink based devices that can read directly off of an SD card and handle multiple formats. The trade off for the direct-light reading and longer battery life is that you have a dedicated e-reader: no way to easily load any extra apps. If that's all you want, then go this route.

I grabbed an iRiver form Target when they hit the $40 price tag last year. I load the ebooks onto an SD card and just pop it into the reader. With daily usage of 2-3 hours read time, it has to be charged up about once every 3-4 weeks. This one does have a built in comic book reader and does fairly well rendering the comics in gray-scale, but it really does better with non-color comics such as manga.


Tablet - Android OS; flexible usage; high-res color screen.
Lots of tablets out there taking over from dedicated eink readers. With the right app loaded, these make excellect ebook reader as well as scanned comic readers. Android will allow you to use the tablet in many other ways such as web browsing, emailing, game-play, etc. The trade-off for such multi-function devices are limited battery life (measured in hours as opposed to weeks with eink).

I have an Archos 80 G9 tablet running Android ICS. I have an ebook reader app, a comic reader app, and a PDF reader app loaded. For comics, this thing does great. The resolution and size (1024x768 in an 8" screen) is almost perfect for me for comic books. It also does very well for color-image PDF files. I load the comics/ebooks/pdf files to a microSD card and read directly off of the card. The down-side is that I pretty much have to charge this thing up at least every-other day. From a full charge to completely drained is about 10 hours of usage, which is actually pretty good, compared to other devices such as laptops, etc., but not to something like the eink reader. Also, it is easy to get distracted and end up wasting time web-browsing and video watching instead of reading.

If you want a dedicated ereader the popular choices are:

Kindle family (Kindle, Kindle Paperwhite, Kindle Keyboard) (http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B007 ... d_i=468294)

The market leader, available in touch format, keyboard format and with paperwhite (a light for reading in darker light). Can be sideloaded as long as in mobi format. amazing battery life, lots of extras, good price.

Kobo Touch, Kobo Glo, Kobo Mini (http://www.kobo.com/ereaders) cheaper than kindle, can be sideloaded (Epub/PDF format), glo has reading light, IMO build quality not up to standard
Nook Simple Touch, Nook Simple Touch with Glow Light (http://www.foyles.co.uk/NOOK) (can be sideloaded (EPUB) glow light has reading light, same price as kindle but comes with mains charger as well as usb. good build quality and good battery life (i own one )

Sony Family (http://www.sony.co.uk/hub/ebook-reader) they have just reduced their prices, superb build quality, can be sideloaded, no light though.

so depends on what you are looking for. the nook and kobo have sd card slot if you need one, afaik the kindle/sony doesnt.

http://ebook-reader-review.toptenreviews.com/ is a great site to compare current models

[Santos_helper]

I love my rooted Nook Glow. I cannot think of one format that it can not read, the dictionary is easier to view than the Kindle's, and the SD option and directory structure blows the Kindle out of the water. Rooting was a fairly quick process, as well.

Thank you for the answers!! This site has a great community.
I want to easily download books from the web and put them on my ebook reader. So I was wondering which are the easiest to find formats out there without actually paying for the ebooks. BTW where do you get yours?? Any websites or any other sources to recommend?

[FarrahDog]

I bought a Kindle Touch several months ago and was concerned at the time about the limited amount of space available for books. Within 2 months I was having to shuffle books between my Kindle and my computer because it was glitchy and locking up due to the number of books on it. So I purchased a Nook Simple Touch that has the ability to add a 32 GB SD chip. I also like the turn pages feature on the side that makes turning pages with one hand wonderfully easy. The downsides are no text-to-speech like with the Kindle (handy when traveling to switch back and forth from reading to listening) and the send to Kindle through your Amazon account, for those that use this. I also have a iPod 4G with several reading apps and just got an iPad 2. Not the best for long amounts of reading like I do. I can read several books a week, usually one, or more a day and the iPod was causing eye strain.

[FarrahDog]

Thank you for the answers!! This site has a great community.
I want to easily download books from the web and put them on my ebook reader. So I was wondering which are the easiest to find formats out there without actually paying for the ebooks. BTW where do you get yours?? Any websites or any other sources to recommend?

Depends on your eReader.

If you have a Kindle you need to look for mobi / AWZ3 books, or PDFs.

Nook, Kobo and Sony, as well as iBooks are ePub, or PDF.

But with Calibre you can convert between ePub, mobi, lit and (poorly) PDF.

As for where we all get our books. Also depends on what genre you are looking for. I know where to get romances from. Anything else, not so much.

[red6devil]

Don't waste your money on an ebook reader; it basically does only one thing well, and tends to tie you to the format of the company i.e Kindle/Amazon.
Try a seven inch wifi tablet; it not only lets you read ebooks, FBReader and Cool Reader apps both read epub and mobi formats so generally no converting required, but it lets you visit the web with a decent browser, sync your books in the cloud without companies like Amazon deleting your account because you didn't buy the books with them and playing games when you get to a bit of the book which is tiring.
I love my Galaxy Tab 2 7s; the kindle went in the bin.

I have a Kindle Fire HD and it works. I use Calibre to convert any books to mobi format

Tablets are great but useless in direct sunlight.

[jaysee]

I use Calibre to convert any books to mobi format

This for me too. Calibre is usually pretty good with conversion so only occasionally do you get an unreadable conversion.

I have a Kindle & iPad and flick between the 2 depending on location.

One of the options
http://www.wayteq.si/trgovina/en/tablet%20...%20eader.html

I hate the idea of a kindle reader. I'd go for the most versatile as far as book formats are concerned. Then I'd want the best size, battery use, and a screen that isn't too shiny/reflective and one you can add a decent amount of apps to so it does as many reading jobs as possible.

Don't get sucked in by big brand names that don't deserve the high price tags or fall for cheap gimmicks like having a reading light (why in hell do you need a reading light for a screen made of light???}.

Just do your research and think about what YOU want instead of what other people are showing off and so claim is best.

(why in hell do you need a reading light for a screen made of light???}.

An e-ink screen is not made of light, which is why it's so comfortable to read and why you can read easily in the sun. In the dark, though, it is dark. That's where the light comes in.

I have Kobo Glo and I love it! I used to have an old Sony ereader and I loved that too, but the newer ereaders are much better. The Glo is easy to use, has a nice big screen, is very light, feels soft (plastic/rubberish, not metal like my old Sony), has a long battery life, works in the sun and has a light for reading in the (semi)dark. It's exactly what I need. IMO it's perfect for reading "normal"books. If you want to do other things on it as well (games, comics, etc.), you need to buy something else, like a tablet computer.

Ah... Learnt a few things here. Didn't know that eink needed a separate light source. Never seen an eink screen so don't know how that works. Don't think I'll use it outside much but if I did want to then I'd need a dedicated eink device. Hmm...
Leaning towards something like the galaxy tab 2... but it's still too expensive. :/
Don't like the idea of a kindle device at all. IPad prices are ridiculous.
If I had the cash I'd get 2 devices, one for books, one for the rest. *shrug* I'm just not that rich.
Is there something like the Tab 2.... but cheaper? Bearing in mind I know that a cheaper version would do less.
I don't know how to root devices and can't in my current situation soI'd be stuck with the OS and bloatware.