Best eReaders

You know, the one question that people ask me most when they find out exactly how many eReaders and tablet computers I have bought, reviewed, and actually keep laying around, is why they still see me dragging my Amazon Kindle with me whenever I go somewhere, or why it’s laying around the house when I’ve been reading a book.   “Why don’t you just use your tablet to read, too?”  is the question they invariably ask…except for my techie brother-in-law, that is. 

When we recently took a family vacation to Texas, not only did I bring only my Kindle for reading, but so did he.  Of course, being the geeks that we are in my family, we discussed why neither of us brought a tablet computer, and neither of us brought a laptop…and the concensus was, simply this.  For the best reading experience, absolutely nothing beats the Amazon Kindle. 

Unlike tablet computers, the Kindle isn’t backlit, and you don’t accidentally hit the wrong button on the touchscreen, thereby loosing your place in the book that you’re currently reading.   The Amazon Kindle, with it’s eInk display, and manual page turning buttons on the sides, actually functions better as an eReader than any tablet computer on the market.  And, if you want to just read a book, there is no better device. 

So, yes, while I use one of my tablets whenever I want to search the web, update my Facebook status, or play a quick game of scrabble on Pogo.com, when it comes to reading a book, it’s going to be a long time until I retire the one device that just feels right, looks right, and works right for reading. 

Just like it took some time for many of us to consider switching from real books to the Kindle, they are going to have to retire the Kindle completely before I will switch to reading on anything else.