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Ask Slashdot: I Want To Read More. Should I Get an eBook Reader Or a Tablet?
gspec writes "I read less and less nowadays, but I realize I need to get back into my old reading habit. Would getting an ebook reader or a tablet help me to enjoy reading more? Would you recommend one over the other? A little relevant background about me: I probably can spare two hours a day to read. I do not travel a lot. I am not a fast reader; if I force myself, I could probably finish a standard length novel in a week. English is my second language, so a built-in dictionary would be nice. I enjoy Netflix, and I have bought many computer/technical eBooks from O'Reilly for reference. I have many technical reference PDFs. I have 300-400 bucks to spare for this. I'd like to hear opinions based on your knowledge and experience on reading using ebook readers/tablets."
I got an kindle dx which was terrible for pdfs, my main interest. Now I have an iPad and use goodreader and it is awesome.
Right now I have a Kindle Keyboard. The screen may be too small if you read books with a lot of diagrams or illustrations. The Kindle DX would be better in this regards, but it is a tad spendy.
Regardless of what you get, I'd recommend Calibre for managing your library, and I would strongly suggest checking out your local library system's ebook lending. It is extremely convenient to be able to borrow books at any hour of the day or night. If you have access to different library systems, check out the ebook lending offers at each - sometimes one system will have a wider selection.
I would recommend eInk. Less eye-strain. Less battery drain (weeks between charges). And seems to work great in strong sunlight or other adverse conditions.
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Tablets are multi-media devices. They do it all. eInk based e-readers are just for books and they do it exceptionally.
PS - The text on this page is insanely small and CTRL+ won't fix it. What the hell
It won't be great for techinical books, but for reading novels, the cheapest kindle is just awesome. eInk is super comfortable to read and it doesn't force you to read with an overly bright backlit display. The "page" is about the size of a normal book (the ipad screen is a little too wide to support a good reading speed IMHO).
Bottles.
If you're reading fiction, get a Kindle or other e-ink device, because these guys have the advantage of being lightweight, have long battery lives, and "disappear" when you're reading. You just read and read and can enjoy yourself.
If you're reading non-fiction, especially non-fiction with charts, graphs, and the like, get a tablet. They support more advanced features with ePub.
Finally, the device in many cases also ties you into a store. If you're just interested in loading up your own PDFs, you have free reign to select any tablet. If you want to read books from the iBookstore, you have to go with the iPad. If you like the Kindle store or the Nook store, you can choose most tablets OR their own tablet offering.
Get both. A $70-$120 dollar e-reader and a $330 to $280 tablet. e-Readers are bad for surfing the web or any interactive work, they are also bad for any graphical reading. Tablets are bad for long-term reading, both in strain on the eyes and they tend to go to sleep before wordy pages can be read, not to mention who wants to recharge multiple times to finish a book, and are worthless in sunlight, and Tablets are heavy.
I have a Second-gen Kobo I got on sale as Borders was going out of business. And, I have a HP Touchpad I bought as HP discontinued the product line. Together they cost less than $350. Watch for a sale, the previous generation devices can always be found cheap.
Both the tablet and e-Reader grew on me and I reach for each at different times. I keep both with me almost all of the time. My certification/professional work all ends up on the Tablet for the graphics. O'Reilly publishes their e-books without DRM, so I can put books on both and use whichever works best in a given situation. I wasn't too sure about the e-Reader until I went on a trip without it, I was miserable in an 8-hour layover without it. The Tablet I liked immediately, and have it dual booting between WebOS and Android. The E-Reader ends up with most fiction and non-technical non-fiction, I have downloaded about as many Gutenberg Press books as for pay books off of O'reilly, Google, and Kobobooks. I spend about an hour with each device EACH day. I also have learned to build my own Android APPs and ePub books, not that difficult.
Here's to losing my Karma Bonus again....
That's not a good way of looking at it. ebook readers are much, much better for reading (easier to read off of is the main advantage, but not having to constantly re-charge is also a huge advantage, as is being able to fit it in a pocket). If you plan to read a lot, I just don't think a tablet is an acceptable substitute.
If you're not a heavy reader and but want to have the capability in case the mood ever strikes you, then reading a book on a tablet is fine.
It's almost a moot point, since a kindle is just $80.
Slashdot: providing anti-social weirdos a soapbox, since 1997.
Would getting an ebook reader or a tablet help me to enjoy reading more?
No, they will make it easier to carry around a large bunch of books you might want to read, but they don't make reading any funner (it will be a word if you use it enough). Tablet vs eBook doesn't matter. If you truly want it for reading and not social media/videos, pick something with an e-ink display. If you're a slow reader, text-to-speech is a very nice feature. I use it all the time on my standard Kindle.
You want an e-ink display.
You want good battery life.
You don't need much storage (books are at most a few MBs each).
You want something that you don't notice while carrying.
You'll want to use the free open source Calibre to manage your eBooks. I hate it's slow and annoying interface, but it's by far the best at what it does.
However, eBook readers are poor for PDFs.
If you can't handle carrying around a small book and reading that, getting a tablet or eBook read won't make you read books. Getting a Kindle has made me listen to books. I listen to them while doing things around the apartment, traveling on a bus, and whenever I have +10m of nothing to do and don't want to simply relax. But I still don't read more.
My Kobo came with 100 (free) books pre-installed and I have read through about 20 of them so far. Having a good e-Reader makes Project Gutenberg books (free) easy to read, and there are about 40,000 books available, I have read about 10 so far. There are many great $1 dollar books available online. Given my Kobo cost me $80, I have broken even and saved money already, not to mention the tremendous convenience. I am also reading things I wouldn't have read otherwise, that I wanted to read. It wasn't worth spending $7 to buy a copy of Anna Karenina, but it was a worthwhile read at no-cost except for the reader which was already paid for.
Here's to losing my Karma Bonus again....
Why does everyone here want/recommend an idevice? I thought slashdot was a little more enlightened than this, and an ipad2? The screen resolution's not all that special at reading range and it's too large, what about the lovely nexus7, high res screen, good size for reading, cheap, or if you must get a 10" device how about the asus transformer 101, pad only since you want it primarily for reading, refurbished for ~$200.
If all you want is to READ, then any e-ink device is much better than any tablet. First, because of the display and second because they are much LIGHTER than tablets. When I want to read in bed, I can comfortably hold my Kindle with one hand over my hand while lying on my back and use the thumb to page up/down. If you'd try the same with an ipad, you'd get muscle cramps within a few minutes. E-ink readers are built specifically for reading and do that exceptionally well - display, battery life, size/weight are all much much better than on any tablet. Tablets are built for so many more functions than only reading (video, games, surfing, ...) that if all you want is read e-books, they are too expensive and too big.
Only situation where I could accept choosing a tablet over an e-ink reader is if you mainly read pdf files which are heavy on colour photos/diagrams, because the b/w e-ink displays suck at those.