Portable electronic book readers, such as the Amazon Kindle, the Sony PRS or the iRex, have been around in some shape or form for a decade now. However, it seems that they have really taken off in the first half of 2009. The Kindle 2 and the Kindle DX were released in the first 6 months of the year and there is a plethora of new readers under development expected to be released very soon.

Electronic textbooks are being introduced for some scholars as early as August 2009 and a lot of colleges and universities have trial programs in place to make further education textbooks available electronically.

So why all the fuss? Here’s a list of ten things you can do with your portable electronic book reader:

1. Take a complete library of books with you in a device that is, typically, the size of a paperback book.
2. Choose your own ideal font size to make your books easier to read. Very handy if you forget your reading glasses.
3. Choose a reader with e-Ink technology and you won’t suffer from screen flicker or glare. The latest E-Ink displays cause considerably less eye strain when compared to reading a book on a typical notebook.
4. Be eco-friendly. Save on paper and ink by choosing e-books rather than the traditional printed editions.
5. Save cash. The savings on printing and distribution costs available to publishers can be passed on to book buyers. You can even get free public domain books from Google and free Kindle books direct from Amazon. You could get the cost of your reader back pretty quickly.
6. Save space. If you read a lot, your home can soon become cluttered with books. That won’t be a problem when you store your books electronically.
7. Make the best use of your time. You can download digital books very quickly – less than sixty seconds is claimed for the Amazon Kindle for example. No time wasted waiting for postal deliveries and no treks into the shopping centre only to discover that the last copy of the book you wanted just got sold.
8. Read books in a number of different languages at the touch of a button.
9. Try before you buy. Get a sneaky peek at the book you’re thinking of purchasing. The opening chapter of many books can now be accessed as a free download at many online book seller’s websites.
10. Listen to music. Many readers have the capability to let you play backing music whilst you’re reading.

Tags: amazon kindle, kindle 2, kindle accessories, kindle DX, kindle ebook reader

This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 14th, 2009 at 10:04 am and is filed under Christmas Gifts Ideas. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.