Sony e book reader

[kcimato]

I saw this advertised at KMart this week and wonder if anyone has one and how it compares to the Kindle?

[babystuffbuff]

I love my Reader. Love, love, love it. It's lightweight and small and fits in my purse. It's especially great for travel - very convenient to have a few dozen books to pick from without actually bringing a few dozen books in my bag. I have a road trip to Boston next weekend (8+ hours each way) and I bought a few new books that I'm looking forward to reading. The battery lasts a long time, too. DH got me the cover with a built-in light this past Christmas and that's great for reading in bed (I think that's why he got it - he hates trying to sleep when I have my bedside lamp on ;)). I really can't say enough good things about it. I've had it for a little over two years.

I don't know how it compares to the new Kindle. When I bought my Reader, I looked at the original Kindle also (the one that was available at the time) and found the Kindle's keyboard really annoying. It was heavier, too, and I didn't feel the need to be able to download books at any time using the wi-fi. If I hear of a new book that I want to read, I do the same thing I did before I had the Reader - I write down the title to look up later. :)

One of my good friends has the Kindle 2 and loves it, though, so YMMV. But I've been very pleased with the Sony. HTH!

ETA: I've found that the thing about flying with it is that the TSA folks want me to take it out of the bag and put it in a bin going through security, like you would a laptop. But I assume it would be the same with the Kindle.

[billysmommy]

DH got me one for Christmas and I absolutely love it!!!! The only downfall I found is that it is not mac compatible but I just download the books at our office so it's not a big deal. The battery does last a really long time and I got a cute zip-up cover for it to help protect it from the boys. I've taken it on vacation with us a few times and wasn't asked to remove it from my bag.

It holds up to 160 books which I really like because I like to read books again...and again...and again :) When I got it they had a promotion to download up to 100 classics free so I really took advantage of that too.

[hellokitty]

My brother has a sony e-book, my dad gave it to him as a Christmas gift and he likes it. His biggest complaint (and this would apply to the Kindle as well), is that the e-books aren't that much cheaper than regular books, kwim? I noticed it too, b/c there was one book I wanted to get at Amazon, I noticed that the e-book version was only $2 cheaper than the regular book version and found that to be quite annoying, seeing how both of these e-books (Kindle and Sony) are so expensive. I'd like to get one, but I'm waiting for the price to go down. My brother did mention that library systems that let you check out e-books (usually it's for 2 wks) would make cut the costs of having to buy different e-books to go with the Kindle or Sony. Classics (books) are all basically free.

[sdjeppa]

I have a Kindle (the first edition) that I got for Christmas, and I absolutely love it. I love the wi-fi feature, so that I can download books immediately, and I also use it for simple web browsing at work, or if I need a phone number or directions while i am out (I don't have an i-phone or similar that I use for that). It is so easy, and so convenient...so convenient I have to watch how many I download ;). There are many free books available on Amazon also...some are random books I normally wouldn't choose, but find I enjoy reading them.

The only drawback is that you can't "share" books like you would a paper version...but, the Kindle can easily convert all e-book formats to Kindle format, while my friend with an e-reader is limited as to the formats she can read.