On e-readers

My e-book reader is one of my all-time favorite gadgets. It's especially handy when I travel because, depending on how long the trip and the plane ride, I usually bring four or five paperbacks with me. When we went to the Philippines for two weeks one year I brought something like fifteen paperbacks, half of them intended for the almost-24 hour plane ride. I didn't have room for much else in my carry-on. But with my e-reader, I could put as many books on there as I want and I only have to worry about bringing one device with me.

Before I settled on my e-reader a few years ago I was torn between the Ebookwise and the Sony, finally settling on the Ebookwise because it was a lot cheaper ($124 vs. Sony's $300 price tag). At the time, Sony didn't have an interactive touchscreen while the Ebookwise did, but Ebookwise was clunky and the screen didn't have e-Ink technology. Nevertheless, I've generally been very happy with how it has performed and held up over the years.

Then came the Kindle, and then recently, the much bigger Kindle DX, and I've been seriously considering replacing the Ebookwise with the Kindle at some point in the future. I especially love the wireless download feature of the Kindle, meaning you don't have to plug in the device in order to download the book file like I have to do with my current e-reader. But then...but then! I recently read on Time magazine that Apple is looking into designing and creating what I consider to be the holy grail of all e-readers - a device similar to the iPod. An iPod e-reader?! Sold! So I think I'm going to hang on to my trusty Ebookwise for now, and wait for Apple to come through on this. I hope they don't take too long!