The new electronic frontier of reading
Can you imagine carrying an entire library?s worth of books in your hand? How about bringing hundreds of books with you whenever you?re traveling?
Thanks to the growing business of E-readers, book lovers can do just that.
E-readers, much like iPods and MP3 players changed the way people listened to music, are changing the way people read books, magazines and newspapers. These small hand-held devices allow readers to instantly download best-selling or classic books, the latest magazines or the top stories from newspapers across the country.
With an E-reader, customers can open the latest mystery by Sue Grafton, peruse a classic by F. Scott Fitzgerald or read the latest issue of The New Yorker. As an added bonus, E-readers take up virtually no space thanks to their small, compact design. E-readers are smaller and thinner than a paperback book.
Those who travel often for business or pleasure are usually the biggest fans of E-readers. It?s never convenient to stuff several thick books into suitcases or duffel bags. As anyone who?s ever lugged books through airports or on long train rides can tell you, they?re not exactly light. Too often, readers decide to simply leave their favorite books at home.
With e-readers, though, travelers can carry dozens of books in one lightweight, portable package. They simply download to their E-reader of choice as many books as they could possibly read during their trip.
E-readers also provide several bonus features. For instance, users can make notes and mark favorite or intriguing passages for future review. They can look up definitions with their E-reader?s built-in dictionary, and can hunt for synonyms with its thesaurus. Readers also no longer have to worry about damaging their pages when a bookmark is nowhere to be found; E-readers make a note of the last page a user has read, and then brings that page back up when the reader returns.
The two most popular E-readers now on the market are the Amazon Kindle 2 and the Sony Reader. Both come with easy-to-read screens, with the Kindle 2 boasting 16 different shades of grey. The Sony Reader can store about 350 standard ebooks, while the Kindle 2, released in February, can store a whopping 1,500.
Choosing an E-reader can take time and research. That?s because each E-reader comes with its own special features. Fortunately, the Internet is filled with reviews of all the commercial E-readers now available. Consumers just need to run a quick Google search to find dozens of reviews.
Maybe it?s time for you to give an E-reader a try. With one, you can usually purchase books at a deep discount. For example, owners of the Amazon Kindle 2 can purchase most best-sellers for just $9.99 on the online Amazon Kindle Store. And once you download a book or two, you just might get hooked on electronic reading.