Digital readers and e-books are great for nerds like me. I travel a lot, and having an e-reader means I’m carrying around a lot less weight. But there’s a lot out there, so here are four brands of e-readers to know about and choose from.
1. iPad Air and Air 2
Most bookworms have found that they like the iPad the best over other e-readers. It has more formatting options than Nook and Kindle, like viewing multiple pages on one screen, and more storage space. The only real drawback is that it is a little heavier and more likely to fall on your face if you’re reading in bed.
2. Kindle and Kindle Voyage
This is Amazon’s little bundle of joy. The battery lasts for weeks, and the newest model is thin and easy to cart around. It’s got a high resolution of 300 ppi, and you can adapt the brightness to avoid straining your eyes.
3. Nook & Nook Glowlight
It’s hard to walk into Barnes & Noble without being assaulted by one of their Nook experts asking if you want to learn more. But it’s more than just an e-reader. It can do almost anything a Kindle can do. Unfortunately, it doesn’t do well overall to keep up with other e-reader technology.
4. Kobo Aura and Aura HD
Kobo Aura is pretty pricey for what you get, but it’s a high quality hidden gem that hasn’t had much media attention. Not only does it have high resolution, adjustable brightness and months of battery life, but it also uses Beyond the Book, which picks out words and phrases from books and gives you further information about it. If I had to pick one e-reader for the rest of my life, I might just pick this one.
5. A library card
If you drop a book in the toilet after your morning reading session, it’s only a little library fee of collateral instead of a hundred dollars or more. Books don’t crash or run out of battery life. However, they do smell funny, and they don’t have backlights for reading quietly in bed without disturbing your spouse. Libraries also don’t have a very large selection of books anymore, and some material isn’t even published in print. However, you can borrow e-books from the library on your digital reader, although they still don’t have the largest selection. So it’s a toss-up.