Casey’s Literary Rants

Casey Literary RantsIn which I rant about eReaders

Yes, eReaders. You either love them or you hate them. Unless you’re me, then you kind of hate them while sitting there and thinking “I need one!” Yeah, I have this totally unique love/hate relationship with eReaders.

I hate them because nothing will ever replace holding a book in my hand while reading it. There are lots of things you can do with a book that you can’t do with an eReader. Like turning the page! I mean really, is there anything better than turning a page? Yeah, there are literally millions of other things better than turning a page but I love it more than I love scrolling down a screen.

Another reason why I don’t like eReaders is because you don’t have to worry about dead batteries or technological failure when you pick up a book to read. Even if the lightbulb in your lamp dies you can just walk outside and read. (Night or day. Both work. Trust me, I’ve read outside under the sunlight and the moonlight. ‘Twas awesome.)

Though, one of the pros of eReaders is that it is backlight. I’m sure I wasn’t the only kid who stayed up late on school nights reading, but got caught because my parents saw the lamp light still on. Yeah, having an eReader would have prevented so many fights with my parents.

I do have the Kindle app on my phone, so I do know that it is so much easier to whip out my phone and start reading while standing in line somewhere. I could whip out my book but I can hold my phone in one hand and slide it into my pocket when I’m in the front of the line.

So the point of this rant comes to this – I’m breaking down and going to buy one for myself. (I probably should save this money for something else but I need an eReader. Need one. I’ve tried entering contests to win one and I’ve never won. It’s so depressing. So now I’ll be shelling out the money to buy one.) But I don’t know what eReader I should get. A Kindle? A Nook? I’ve heard that a Nook Color is way better than both the Nook and the Kindle but it’s more expensive. Is a Kindle worth getting? Yes it’s cheaper, but a lot of the ebooks I’ll be getting will be pdfs or .ascm and you can’t download those onto a Kindle. Yes there are pros and cons to each eReader (and trust me, I’ve made multiple lists) but I want your help figuring out which one I should get. Give me the dirty details about your eReaders (but only if you own one, if you don’t, we can talk about how much we love turning pages in a book!) or tell me if you know of a cheap eReader that is better than both the Kindle and the Nook. Yeah, tell me all about the cheap, awesome eReaders.

P.S. I’m sorry that this rant is pretty short and not very rant-y, but I’m super busy right now and I did want your imput on this. So to make it up to you guys, I can tell you right now that I’m working on a four-part rant. Yes, a four-part rant. As in, for four weeks, you will get one part of a totally awesome rant. I won’t tell you what it’s about but I can tell you that I’ve been wanting to write these  since before I started writing CLR. So I want it to be perfect. Hopefully you’ll read part one in a couple of weeks.

About Casey 203 Articles
Casey is the founder of Heart Full of Ink, Director at Reading Until Dawn Con, and a full time cheese addict. She's been ranting and reviewing for Literary Escapism since 2010, and is part of the trio #3Bloggers1Series podcast. When she's not reading, looking for new books, or stalking authors online (waiting for more books), she can be found binge watching Netflix. But really, her life is all about DEM BOOKS!

6 Comments

  1. i love my nook. It supports different formats and mine had free 3G so I could buy books wherever I was. I also love the color touch screen on the bottom. I do not like backlit screens, and mine doesn’t have one. It looks more like a regular book page and is less strain on the eyes. I also like that I can just click a button, one handed, to turn pages since I read in weird positions like laying on my side that makes page turning on a paperback harder. Also I have tendinitis and wear a hand brace during flare ups that make it difficult to hold a book and turn pages with that hand. Anyways, hubby is military and we were moved last month to Japan. The nook is not international and I cannot purchase new books without a US IP address. The Kindle is international tho. Also the nook has expandable memory. You just use a camera memory card, so if you run out of room, you won’t have to delete or archive books. Hope I helped :)

  2. I use to feel the same way about eReaders until I got one. I have a kindle so no backlight (backlight’s are not as good for your eyes, eReaders like Kindle are very much like regular books for your eyes). I LOVE it. Like, love it. I never thought I would be so easily switch my affection considering I’ve been a bookworm all my life. But to be honest, it’s because I’m a bookworm that I love it so much.

  3. I have a kindle 3rd generation and absolutely love it. While it doesn’t have the expandable memory that the Nook has, it does have free 3g wireless, you can go international with it and not have to worry about not being able to connect, they make new covers that has a book light built into it so you can read anywhere. I love the fact that it isn’t backlit. I read on a computer most of the day so when I want to sit down and read a book I don’t want to read on a computerish type screen. Since kindle also has whispersync I can read between my computer at work, my phone, and my kindle without having to try and figure out where I left off. Kindle’s will read PDF. I tend to convert to .mobi though if possible. Having a button to push to do the page turns is nice, yes you lose the feel of a physical book but having a cover on the ereader makes up for it a little. With a kindle there is no scrolling of any kind, reach the end of the page,click the button, new page. While I love my kindle, I’ve contemplated getting a Nook color also for storing PDF versions of sheet music and reading graphic novels.

  4. I have a Kindle. I didn’t want a backlight because I find that the grayscale is easier on my eyes. I still read paper books from the library but I love my kindle. The best thing is I can buy new books without anyone complaining about more books in the house. I ahve about 400 books on my kindle and there’s no way I’d have room for them in my bookcases.

  5. I bought a Nook Color primarily because it is backlit. I have bought every booklight on the market and hate every one of them. The backlighting can be adjusted to your own comfort level and you can also change to NIGHT which is black background and white typing. This is my favorite and very easy on the eyes. Never thought I would like an ereader but like you decided I needed one and I am happy with my decision.

  6. I own a Palm TX (old tech now), an Android phone and an Ipad2 and a Macbook Air (kind of shocking as I am well known in my family as an Apple hater)

    I’ve had the TX for 3 years and I bought the Android phone because it has some of the LOVE IT features of the TX :

    small- I can hold it in my hand/stick it in my jacket or any purse, even in my pants if I need to free up my hands for a minute. I can read with one hand.

    Backlit: I love to be on the train or in a theatre (movie or live) and read in low light while I am waiting. Both also have the Night feature and adjustable lighting.

    Flexible :The android also can has apps for all the formats I own (~1500+ebooks)- eReader(pdb) Kindle (prc) ,Nook (epub), Aldiko (epub &pdf) unlike the Palm, which is restricted to pdb,prc, or non-drm books. Aldiko fills the void for all the books I buy from other bookstores that don’t have their own direct download apps (Fictionwise , Amazon, and Barnes &Noble do direct download from your online library to your device) Aldiko works with Dropbox, and since I keep all my ebooks saved there, I can download directly into my device from Dropbox)

    I bought my ipad2 and Macbook Air as retail therapy when my mother died suddenly this summer . (It was also a Dell backlash as they gave me stick over my premium warranty days after her funeral :)

    The ipad2 has all the apps (bar Aldiko) that my Android does. The biggest difference for me is that altho it does lots more, and is ideal if you read pdfs , it is more like reading hardbacks than paperbacks. It weighs about a pound, and I keep thinking it feels heavier than my Macbook Air (13″) So while I do use the iPad (great for recipes/cookbooks, and I LOVE FaceTime calls on it) , it feels more like a toy I play with or read on when I can’t use my android or Palm , than an ereader per se.

    I hope this non Nook/Kindle viewpoint helps. I would never buy a non backlit device for reading after owning and loving my Palm. The only plus that I see with e-Ink screens is reading outdoors, and they use less power (therefore longer battery life) than backlit screens. If I’m going to carry something as big as an iPad or Kindle around, I would certainly like to do more than read with it.

    Happy shopping!
    Mary Jo (who taps the pages on pb’s now and is surprised when the page doesn’t turn :)

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