Shortly after Christmas, I bought myself something I’d known about for a while but didn’t have the money to afford – an electronic book reader. The one I picked, mainly because it’s the only kind available and/or really usable in Canada, was the Sony Reader. I went with the PRS-505 model, even though the newer PRS-700 had just come out. After spending a lot of time reading reviews, I decided that I didn’t really need the additional features of the 700 and that I would prefer the crisper and more viewable screen of the 505. The 700 is touch-screen and, because of the additional layer on top of the display, the contrast isn’t as good as that of the 505, requiring the use of the 700’s “side” lighting to view the same text as the 505 could read without any lighting (the 505 doesn’t come with a side-light). I figured that none of the physical books I’ve read have come with built in lighting, so I didn’t require that in an electronic book reader either.

In the months since I started using it I’ve become a total convert. I love it. I find it so much easier to hold and carry around, and I like the fact that I don’t need to deal with any kind of physical page turning. At first, I wasn’t completely comfortable with the lack of tactile indication as to how much of a book I’d read. (In the physical world, I can tell by how many pages are in my left hand, how many in my right.) I still don’t have that feedback, but it no longer bothers me. The best part is that it’s always the same size. Even if the physical book equivalent would be huge, the electronic version is always the same – with the only noticeable difference being the number of pages (screens) to be flipped through.

I have shopped for books at Sony’s eBook Store and while there have been a few titles I’ve looked for that have not been available, I have so far has no problem coming up with reading material. Clicking and downloading to my Reader is so much simpler than going in person to a book store. I miss the feel of browsing for books, but the shopping process itself is far easier – and there’s no waiting at all for your purchase to be delivered.

My own reader is the silver model, but I bought Michelle the red model for Valentine’s Day. I thought that red was appropriate for that. I’d mentioned electronic book readers to her before but she never showed much interest. As soon as I bought mine and showed it to her, though, she wanted one herself and kept dropping hints that I should be buying her one for her birthday. I got her the red one ahead of that date. Like me, she has preferred using it to physical books. At the time that I’d got it for her she’d recently bought herself a few books with Christmas gift certificates. I bought and downloaded the electronic equivalents for her. She gave the physical books away and hasn’t thought about them since.

I bought myself a different case for mine at one point, from Tuff-Luv, and used it for a couple of days. Although I liked aspects of it, and at first thought that I’d end up switching to it permanently, I came to realize that I didn’t like the way it looked. For me, it just wasn’t as pretty as the stock case and I didn’t feel “pride” in handing my reader to somebody in that case to show it off. I’ve since switched back to the stock cover. I do, however, have something else in mind. When I got my reader, and was researching various things about it, I came across the excellent Web site MobileRead. In its discussion forums was the news that Oberon Design, who make some really beautiful leather journals covers, among other things, and who’ve created covers for Kindle readers, are working on creating covers for the Sony readers. Their work has just come out of the beta test phase and they should be selling these shortly. I will definitely be picking a couple of these up when they are available.

The one thing about these readers is that I no longer have any desire to buy physical books again. I will also be telling friends and relatives to hold off on doing so. If they want to buy me a book they can give me an online credit at the Sony eBook Store instead.