More e-Readers Compared

Shelf Awareness contributing editor Jenn Northington, general manager at breathe books in Baltimore, MD offers her opinions on the pros and cons of a variety of e-readers, particularly as they pertain to booksellers:

“The first order of business was to pick my weapon of choice. Lord knows, there are umpteen million e-readers. However, I tend to ignore reviews in favor of my “poke it before you buy it” policy–if a piece of software or hardware doesn’t do what I want or expect it to do, I move right along (unless I am absolutely forced to use it for some reason). This puts 90% of e-readers out of the running; the only ones you can try before you buy are the Sony Touch and Pocket Editions, and Barnes & Noble’s nook. (The Kindle was out of the running automatically because–need I say it?–if it doesn’t support the ePub format, it doesn’t support independent bookstores. Plus, you can’t get your hands on it without purchasing it.)”

She concludes “Because of the high demand for e-readers, the only one available immediately (when I went looking; things may have changed in the past week) was the Sony Pocket. So I’ll be waiting until February for my nook to arrive. But not to worry! The next of the installment of her column in Shelf Awareness (the Nitty Gritty): what to do while you’re waiting for your e-reader.”