You are an avid book reader and like to read on the move, you like carry books with you. How many books you can carry two… three… five at max; what about the weight, it is pretty heavy isn’t it!! Now you have an answer for it, the device is called e-book reader. An e-book reader is an electronic device which is mainly for reading digital books and journals because it is portable and handy to use. And the good news is that a single piece of device can store up to 50 e-books.

The e-book readers use the e-ink technology which gives least strain to the eyes as compared to the conventional PDA’s. Also you can easily read from the screens in bright sunlight. There are various e-book readers available in the market. The Display screen could vary from 5” to 9.7” and weighed from 5.2 oz to 20.1 oz. The memory could range from 256 MB to 4 GB. An e-book support various e-book format ranging from PDF, TXT, RTF, ePub.

The e-book readers are generally available in b/w though few are available in color too but this is costly as compared to the b/w. Hopefully with time, technology will improve so does the color reader will also be within the reach. Talking about the price an e-book reader starts at $250 and go till $1000 depending on the features.

Some other characteristics which you can look for in an e-book reader are the touch screen option, music player/audio option, user interface, downloading e-books wirelessly etc. The major sellers for the e-book readers are Sony, Amazon Kindle, Interead, Cybook.

When you are buying an e-book you need to keep in mind about your reading habits. If you are traveling a lot then a light weighted e-book reader will be more comfortable as compared to a heavy but fully loaded (with features) e-book reader. Try to get a reader which can support maximum number of reading format; you never know in which format you will be getting your next e-book. A good battery life and expandable battery is always a welcome relief.

The biggest disadvantage of the e-books are these are more expensive than the printed books but is reachable to places within minutes as compared to hardbound books which may take certain time to reach to your nearer book store. Though to sum it up, I could safely say that there is no comparison in e-books and the conventional printed books. It’s all about choices and the usability.