“E-book” is the general term for digital book files read on specially designed readers, or on your computer. E-book readers use a technology called E-ink, which makes the text sharp and easy to read, and saves battery power immensely. E-books offer similar benefits to bookworms that MP3s do for music lovers.
The goal of the E-book reader is to closely mimic the sensation of reading a real book. Thus, the readers are book-sized, the screen has a dull, slightly tan color to reduce eye-strain, and the screen does not reflect much light, so you can read outside easily. Your fingers can turn pages, dog-ear pages, flip from chapter to chapter, and write little notes in the margins, all visually simulated, of course.
So if the E-book reader is trying to be like a real book, why not just read real books? Firstly: portability. Wherever you are — on a plane, in the park, at the beach — you can carry your books, and some daily newspapers, with you on one device. Secondly: storage capacity. Just as the MP3 player stores your entire music collection in one player, the E-book reader can store thousands of books. Thirdly: easily find books. Hundreds of thousands of books are not copyrighted and can be downloaded for free. Check out Project Gutenberg (www.gutenberg.org/wiki/Main_Page) and Google Books (books.google.com). E-book readers make it very easy to browse for these books and download them direcly to your reader through a wireless internet connection, or through your computer. And if you want to buy the latest novel from your favorite author, E-books are often cheaper than the books from the bookstore.
There are some disadvantages. Like a book, you can’t read it in the dark, because there is no backlighting like a computer screen has. Most models have an annoying flash when a new page appears.
E-book readers can cost from 150 to 500 dollars. The different models and prices offer various options: wireless internet connectivity, ability to download new books through a cell phone network, text-to-speech, annotations, large screens, touch screens vs buttons, and more. Compare E-book readers online at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_e-book_readers.
If no reader has the features you want, perhaps wait awhile. Technology in this area is rapidly improving.
Ideally, E-book readers should be able to display the common E-book formats, like PDF, EPUB, DOC and TXT files, but some E-book makers are trying to push their own proprietary formats. This restricts the sources for E-books to their own company, and adds an extra layer of file formatting that shouldn’t be necessary. Like MP3 players, over time, providers should become more flexible with the file types their E-book readers can use. Many MP3 players, PDA’s and smartphones can also display text, so they can be used as E-book readers, albeit without the advantages of E-ink.
With an E-book reader, your books become available to you anywhere anytime.
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