E-readers are handy electronic devices that are steadily gaining popularity among book lovers the world over. They are compact and light enough to snug it into your pocket or a hand baggage. A single e-reader has enough memory capacity to store a couple of hundred e-books that you can read on the screen as and when you like to. It is this coupled with their portability that has made e-readers a truly must have gadget for almost anyone, more so for those who travel a lot and need a constant supply of reading material.
However, your efforts to acquire an Electronic Reader for yourself can come to a dead end or there are every chances of you ending up buying a device that just not suits your requirements if you are not absolutely clear of what you are asking for. For instance, there are just too many confusing terms going around. So you might have heard terms like e-book reader, an e-book device, e-reader, e-book, electronic book, or a digital book.
Then there are a plethora of e-readers doing the rounds in the market right now and not all of them are made equal. Different e-readers are laden with different features, which makes zeroing in on a particular e-reader an extremely arduous task. They are available in a wide price bracket. So while at one end we have the Kindle 2, there also are e-readers that will set you back by a couple of hundred dollars. Under these circumstances, what is needed the most is some tips that can enable you to make a smart buy.
So let’s begin with the e-book, which is nothing but the book itself complete with all its contents and information. It is similar to a real book and contains just as much, or as little information as a real book. Its only difference with a real book is that an e-book is a digital form of a real book. So if a company like the Amazon says that it has several hundreds of e-books, what this actually means is that there are hundreds of title to choose from, as you would do from a library. They are stored in digital form and are available from outlets like the company site. With an e-reader like the Nook , you can read these e-books just about anywhere, thanks to their compact dimensions and portability. You only have to select the e-book or story according to your preference and download them into your e-reader, which can be either through wireless technology or through an Internet connection.
When selecting an e-reader, you will do good to keep in mind the following 10 points if you don’t want to make a purchase that you’ll lament later. These are:
· The device should allow you to read even in bright sunlight.
· It enables you to download a large range of book titles wirelessly.
· It should make available to you newspapers and other daily publications.
· Internal storage capacity should be adequate.
· A long battery life, say up to 14 days.
· Pages are illuminated so that you can read even during night time.
· It records music and can also play back while you are reading.
· It should be able to download introductory chapters of new novels.
· It should be portable, compact and protected against damage.
· It should have the ‘Read to You’ ability so that you can listen while you drive.
As is perhaps evident, some of the topic mentioned above concerns the technology that the particular e-reader is equipped with, while some refers to the range of support services that the e-reader designer or seller is offering.
The world of books is all about tradition and conservatism. And though computers and the internet have made stupendous progress, the same can’t be said of electronic books as their development have been slow off the block and is dependent on public acceptance. However, there is something to cheer as the threshold has indeed been crossed in mid 2009 so that we now have some excellent e-readers that also provide support services of their own. The result is, we are able to buy Kindle DX and other such magnificent e-reader devices.

E-Book readers are little devices that make a big impact on the way you read books. They are small enough to fit your pocket, and large enough to carry the whole library. Now, you can never get caught without your favorite book! You wanted to be the early Christmas shopper and treat yourself to a digital portable reading device. What has delayed the purchase is the fact that several e-book readers are vying both for your attention and for shelf-space. You need to stop and think, before you choose.  E-book reader is not something which you should wait to buy at a whopping discount in a sale. You need to carefully peruse the features and pick the one that seems tailored for you.  If you field the question, ‘Which is the best e-book reader in the market?’, the responses will be as varied as the number of similar devices to hit the shelves. The answer lies in your ability and desire to do some research. If you are not in a mood to do a comparative study on your own, read on, this can help.
Let’s do a run through the leaders of the pack: Kindle 2 and Kindle DX from Amazon, the Nook from Barnes and Noble and Sony’s Touch edition.  If you will choose an e-book reader to fit your pocket literally and otherwise, then the lowest price is Kindle 2, priced at $259 and the one that comes closest to it is the Touch edition from Sony at $300. Next up is Nook at $349 and the Kindle DX walks tall at $489.  The screen size is 6inches for all except the Kindle DX, which has a 9. 7 inch screen. Having the largest display, the DX boasts of great resolution along with auto-rotate screen, changing from portrait to landscape as you rotate it. All of them have an E-ink display, giving it a paper-feel and making reading more natural than staring at a computer screen.  If carrying a whole library or at least getting somewhere close to it, is you criterion, go for Kindle DX which stores a whopping 3500 E-Books. Standing at a moderate level are Kindle 2 and the Nook, with a capacity for 1500 e-books, which is not bad either. Sony’s Touch edition allows you space for 350 e-books.  All three of them have wireless downloads except Sony Touch PRS-600. Since it has no wireless access, you need to download e-books through your computer. However the Touch edition comes with a stylus for jotting quick notes and has a built-in dictionary. It also has an extended battery life, cruising through 7500 page turns.  One of the distinctive features that the Nook has is its ability to share books, in the same vein as lending books to friends. This feature however is not present in both Kindle 2 and DX or the Touch edition.  It is not that there is just one product in the market which you buy, and then the scene is flooded with many more options and you get into buyer’s remorse. All of them are handy and equally portable, ready to travel with you, wherever you choose to go. Take some time out to pamper yourself with something you always wanted. What’s stopping you? Go and take your pick.