e-readers are very nearly as good to read as a real book. The biggest advantage though is that you can carry your entire library with you. When i first got mine I got stuck on a 2-week business trip in the middle of nowhere. There was nothing to do in the area, and the hotel internet was so bad as to be non-existent. My nook kept me sane.

If you are gonna go with an e-reader spend the extra money on an iPad. Why limit yourself to something that can do something limited when you have the option of purchasing something else that doesnt just restrict you to one bookstore, and also has so much more media/entertainment potential. Also the wall street journal is better than the real deal on it ;D

I TOTALLY disagree with the iPad suggestion. I absolutely adore my Kindle and one of the best parts of it is that the screen simulates paper. It's easy on the eyes and therefore wonderful for reading books for any extended length of time.

The iPad sure has more uses than a Kindle, but if you're looking for a device to read books on, you absolutely want the Kindle (or a similar ereader like a Nook.)

Before I had a Kindle I thought they were just neat ideas. Now that I have one, I wish I'd gotten one a long time ago.

It lets you read with more ease and comfort? WTF? How much is Amazon paying for this shameless endorsement?

Oh, you're more than entitled, no one argued that. But with you and Alex responding so quickly, it also appears you have the right to paid endorsements.

I'm no Apple fanboy, that's not the point. I just think if there's an ad on a page it should be labeled as such.

Anyone who is recommending an iPad over a Kindle as an ebook reader has never used both. The iPad maybe the superior mobile computation device, but it's not in the same league as the Kindle as an ebook reader. The iPad is three times heavier, has a third of the battery life, and most importantly has a backlit screen. The Kindle's eInk screen is exquisite to read, and in an entirely different class to the iPad. If you want to read books, get the Kindle.

On the other hand, the blog subscriptions on the Kindle Store are overpriced and mostly pointless. £1.99/month to read WoWInsider? When it's free on the Kindle browser, let alone on my computer? I think not. Nice try, though.

Another poster (just below this one) mentioned he has a Nook and WoW Insider looks great on it too. This isn't an iPad vs Kindle thing, it's a "Kindle gets a shout out and no other device does" thing.

Look, I'm not trying to stir the pot, but this just smacks of unnecessary bias towards a particular product from a pretty loud megaphone. Everyone knows how many millions of readers WoW Insider has, the impact of a story like this can't be overstated. I'd welcome with open arms a post about all the different devices that access WoW Insider on the go... even a side-by-side comparison. This just feels irresponsible.

I'm done now, I've said more than my $0.02 and I have no agenda, just wanted to voice my concerns.

I own both. I would still recommend the ipad. Kindle is easier to hold, but I hate chasing down light sources to be able to read. I can read on the ipad in bed in whatever position i feel like because i don't have to have a light on or even position it toward the light source if i do have a light on to be able to read it.

I bought a Kindle 2 back in February of 2009, and just upgraded to a Kindle 3 about a month ago. I love, love, love them.

1.) The screen is amazing to read on, especially since the latest generation came out with even better contrast. I don't miss not having backlighting at all--there are lights to read by just about everywhere, and you can get cheap clip-on lights if you need them. (The K3 even has an optional cover with a built-in light that's powered by your Kindle itself, but I skipped it 'cause I didn't want the extra weight.)

2.) The storage capacity is awesome. It used to be when I'd travel I'd bring practically a whole bag just of books. Now, I shove my Kindle into my purse, and maybe pack an extra paperback or two.

3.) The physical design is solid. TBQH I initially preferred the pageturn buttons on the K2--the K3's are MUCH smaller and took a lot of getting used to. What helped a lot was when I realized I could orient the text in any of four directions--so I flipped it upside-down. Now I read with the text flipped like that all the time, which puts the page-forward buttons in a spot where it's much more comfortable for me to hold the Kindle. Overall, though, it's great--mindblowingly thin and light, really. Probably one of the best physical changes on the K3 was the update to the selector from the weird nubbin thing--pushing a switch repeatedly took a lot longer than pushing a button, like you do now.

4.) The charge lasts for-fucking-ever. I've got weeks without plugging it in, and even when the battery is almost out, it just keeps going and going and going. As long as you leave the wireless turned off, you never have to worry about walking away and coming back to find the battery drained, either--outside of 3G/WiFi, it only uses power when it changes the display.

5.) In general, the GUI is pretty decent. For sure, the current crop of text display options are good: multiple fonts, a wide range of sizes, orientation options, etc. The menus are pretty easy to navigate.

Here are the things I don't like:

1.) I still think they slimmed down the pageturn buttons too much on the K3. I actually find myself hitting them accidentally more now than I did on the K2, and I found them much harder to find a comfortable reading position for (until I flipped the display).

2.) DRM. Ugh, ugh, ugh. Hurry up and let me "lend" books to friends already. (And don't tell me the Nook has this feature so I should switch--it only has it for those books where the publisher has enabled it, and you can only do it once.) And figure out a way to let people get library ebooks while you're at it.

3.) You can only create "collections" on the Kindle itself, which is tedious using its small keyboard. (A collection is a sorting method that works kind of like labels in GMail--a single book can be classified under multiple collections.) What it needs is an application like iTunes (only not as annoying as iTunes) that would let you manage your library, including rewriting the information (e.g., author/title) on non-DRM works and creating and assigning collections. Or, hell, just let me create folders on the Kindle's drive and drag and drop items into them.


Reading on my Kindle is the closest experience I've ever had to living in the future, if you know what I mean. There's something just so sci-fi about it.

@gundamxzero
That's like saying get an iPhone when all you want is an MP3 player.

More importantly, I think it's obvious that Sacco gets paid every time someone mentions Garnier Fructis. Just fess up man. If you're gonna advertise with your girly hair, I think you should at least be honest about it.