Over the last few years the e-book reader market has simply exploded. For instance, there are 3 times as many people reading e-books now, than this time last year. As they come into fashion, we are noticing more and more age groups putting down paperbacks and hardbacks, and replacing them with digital readers, especially children and young people. So if you were thinking of getting one, which would be the best model to go for as there are so many available? Also, which ebook bookstore would be best to use? Well in this article we can address some of those questions.
Like most product categories in the digital world, the options for e-readers depend on two things: Price and Functionality.
The cheaper e-books will have very limited features and likely just be a reader whereby you can change books, and flick through pages using buttons. The Amazon Kindle 2011 is one of the best known “no frills” e-readers. It comes with WiFi so you can download the latest release, like I, Alex Cross, without connecting the Kindle to a PC. For less than £80 it means that you would have to pay extra for ad free texts and there is no support for audio, although you still get to store hundreds of books with a battery that will last for weeks at a time.
At the other end of the scale is the Barnes and Noble Nook Tablet. Although not yet released in the UK it is rumoured to be available soon. It has a full colour 7-inch touchscreen, built in WiFi, a microSD expansion slot and over 8GB of memory to store thousands of books, magazines and applications. It has full video playback. When it is eventually released here you will be looking at spending around £200-£250, but that would be for a tablet, not just an e-reader.
Each tablet will have its own custom e-book store, however be keen to hunt around for deals from independent websites. I managed to download a free sample of Life of Pi, by Yann Mantel the other day from a site called Skoob, which provides books for any format. Not only that, they are really reasonably priced too.
