When the debut of the Amazon Kindle started to revive the e-reader and e-book market, I started paying more attention to what was going on in that little world. Not with the intention of buying a reader anytime soon, but because I like gadgets, and I’m a librarian, and I had the thought of “someday, when the DRM is all sorted out, I’ll get one.”
Well, the DRM hasn’t been “all sorted out” (ha!) but someday came this spring, when the idea of buying a Kindle cheap on ebay was planted in my brain, and ferociously took root. Ultimately I didn’t get one, as none of the listings I saw were inexpensive enough. But, this happened in the spring, and my parents were looking for a gift worthy of a milestone birthday. So, I started to look into the possibilities. I had two requirements: I wanted something that could seamlessly download my subscriptions to The New Yorker and The New York Times, and I wanted something that could handle the standard epub format (which means it can be used with Overdrive, a system libraries use to lend out digital content like ebooks and audio books, and I can also purchase ebooks from a variety of sources). This immediately put the Kindle out of the running. My intent here is not to knock it, as I know several people who have one and love it. But it wasn’t going to work for me.
At that point I started to look at the nook and the Sony Reader line. There are several models of Sony Readers at this point, and they can all read the standard epub format. But only one can also seamlessly download subscriptions. The nook can do both of these things, and had the added bonus of being about half the price as that Sony Reader (at the time at least, the price on the nook has actually gone down*, and the Sony Readers may have as well). So, we had a decision. Read the rest of this entry »
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