E-Reading Anywhere

E-readers are not only changing the publishing paradigm, they’re changing the way people read. No longer do we have to carry a pile of paperbacks or wean ourselves from reading the New York Times when we’re traveling. Now we can get what we want to read when we want it, and all on a single, lightweight, eminently portable device.

Personally, I believe the iPad is going to become the market leader, but it may not be for everyone. More a combination netbook and e-reader than a simple reading device, it performs a multitude of functions, but it’s also bigger and you may not need everything it does.

Amazon’s Kindle, Barnes & Noble’s Nook, and the Sony Reader have various pluses and minuses, so you really need to do some research and see which one provides what you want the most. According to their websites, right now Kindle is the only one that allows you to download books in more than 100 countries, only the Nook allows you to “lend” your ebooks, and the new Sony Daily Reader allows you to download directly, but only when you’re ordering from the device itself rather than from your computer.

But the ebook world is changing so rapidly—and will no doubt change even more when the iPad becomes available—that what’s true today may not be true tomorrow. The only thing that won’t change is that e-readers are incredibly user-friendly and have already revolutionized the reading experience both at home and when you travel.