ebook readers and price drops
 

Has anyone had any experience with the Nook, Kindle, or Sony Touch e-readers? the recent price wars have got me re-evaluating the merits of each of them and if I should consider picking one up. I am a voracious reader - I have bookshelves overflowing through my entire apartment. Any thoughts on the good/bad/ugly of these devices, and if they're worth it at all, particularly now that price points are going sub-$200?

I am an early adopter of the Kindle. I have a Kindle1 and love it. Since the price drop I have started considering purchasing a Kindle2. I have several friends with Nooks, and after playing with them, I really don't like the device. The "color" display is only there to show titles, and reduces the reading-area. I don't think the "lending" feature of the nook is enough to recommend it ... if you can afford a $250 device, you can afford to pay $10 for a book. Consumer Reports liked the Kindle better, too. There is a lot of free content available for the Kindle, and you can port over pdf files, so even if you are trying to read on a budget, it's more than do-able.

Good points. The color thing on the nook I always thought was a little stupid. It does, however, take SD cards, and I like the chess and sudoku built in. but the keyboard on the kindle does have some interest for me, too. I can't decide if I should just save up for an iPad instead(or equivalent, cheaper tablet later), or skip the whole thing entirely. Also one thing I don't like about the e-books often for sale as a whole is that they're either free "classics" that i've already ready from project gutenberg a billion times, or they're like.. the stuff you buy in airports. super lame. i'm still torn. :( a big draw, though, is as a portable PDF reader. I like white papers/research papers a lot.

How heavy are these devices?

Unfortunately my wrists are in such poor condition that it can be slightly uncomfortable to hold up a book for extended periods, in certain positions.

10.2 ounces for the Kindle, may be slimming down sometime after August ... there are rumors that a lighter device will be released then.

Nook is 12.2 ounces, according to B&N's site.

Maybe when OLED monitors hit mainstream...

I dunno about OLED. not really at all the same as e-ink. eyestrain, for one.

well, woot.com got bought by amazon yesterday, and now woot has a pretty good deal on a latest-generation kindle starting tonight for 24 hours, so I ended up ordering one. We'll see how it is, and I hope I don't regret not having the chess app that Nook offers. For some super-nerdy reason, the chess thing really, really appealed to me. But the Kindle should be an interesting experience; I'll post my thoughts when it arrives if anybody cares.

Yes, please do.

I like paper books, I like flipping through the pages, noticing the bookmark lovingly
holding my last page(cheesy I know) and everything else tactile about holding a book.

I hope the kindle type things don't do to the book like the c/d did to LPs although that was a good thing.

I'm with Sky on this one. I like the actual books. I stare at a computer screen for work, I don't want to have to read a book on one, too. Then again, my dream house would include a two floor library. :)

Kindle upgrade v3.0 :
Has a transparent "page" that the reader can turn as they read.
Allows handwritten notes in the margins.
Retains notes for future reference.
Allows pages to be folded, torn, or crumpled by 3-yr olds of the family

Kindle upgrade v4.0 :
Charges the reader's bank account late fees if it is borrowed by a friend.

To all those who say that they love paper books:

Let me tell you guys something - I live in less than 900 square feet of apartment and I have, I think, eleven sets of bookshelves. Some have the shelves double-stacked, and all of them have piles on top of them. There are piles of books (and magazines, I don't discriminate) next to the bed, around and on top of my desk, the couch, around the television(delicious irony), and, ahem, in the bathroom.

I LOVE books.

And I'm drowning in them.

I'm also not particularly willing to pay $10 for a digital copy of something that's locked to a single manufacturer, though. Ebook prices are still too high to justify their regular purchase, if you ask me, without guarantee of rights in perpetuity across multiple platforms.

Mostly, I expect to be using it for news and blogs, free publications, a portable PDF reader, and Wikipedia. I'm really (nerdily) excited by the idea of being able to carry piles of research papers with me.

One thing that the Nook has over the Kindle is that I saw the Nook has a chess app built in, and sudoku. Man that's appealing. But the sale on the Kindle was too much to pass up since I've been chomping at the bit to play with one. Plus, my birthday is soon, so here's my present :D

I think it's a wonderful medium, I'm not part of it...yet.

However, there is something about the feel of a book, the sight of books on shelves, the subsequent browsing of hardcovers, or even softcovers.

They're comforting, books. I bet if a tornado takes your home you will salvage at least one book. I can't imagine a nicer possession.

Mind you, I've misplaced books in my years, but I've never consciously thrown one away, or even given one away or sold it. I still have my books from childhood. Mom gave me much leeway in ordering from the scholastic book club or whatever it was called, but often had to limit me to 4 or 5 at a time, because I was voracious.

Excuse me, I must go read The Mystery of the Witches Bridge and The Phantom Tollbooth one more time. :)

My paperback copy of Glory Road from the late sixties is falling apart. So I don't like that part of it. But, like Sad, I'm not ready to pay for digital books yet.