As a straight, no frills e-reader, the Kindle is hard to beat.

Hate to say iot, but had some sever "customer service" problems with Nook. Took almost 4 months to get a problem settle, including a "toss out the window" threat.

The e-ink screen is great because it's not back-lit, so it doesn't strain my vision and give me headaches, but on the other hand it's not back-lit so you can't read it in the dark. Which was a real PITA over the weekend (lost power Saturday, didn't get it back until this afternoon)

My wife bought a cover/case for her Kindle that uses the battery in the Kindle to power a small LED array that pulls out of the upper right corner. Works great.  Cost... $50, I think?

That said, I bought myself a Nook Color, but I plan on hacking it to Cyanogen after my wrist heals, soooo... it may not suit your needs.

No, not an iPad -'I don't need it to change a light bulb, I just want to download and read books.

Bill

I picked up a Kindle a few weeks ago, and I am very satisfied with it.

Reading an hour or so a day on it gave me a three week battery life, the screen is easy to use, and Amazon makes it pretty easy to manage your library. 

I highly recommend it.

I got the Kindle. Don't ask me which model - it's the $140 one, no 3G - but it doesn't have the ads. Letting it charge up overnight, download uprising tomorrow and I'll give a report.

Bill

Feud,
Which model of kindle did you get?

I got the new $79 one.  Since it was going to be a strict e-reader I didn't see the point in spending more on features I didn't want (like a touch screen, I don't want to smudge up my reading area) or that I didn't really need (like 3g, didn't think that while I was out and about I'd need to buy a book that badly).

The one downside, it can be a bit of a pain to type stuff into it.  However, outside of initial setup when you have to put some info into it to register it to your account, I almost never type anything so the lack of a keyboard isn't a big deal.  You can basically manage everything about it from your computer, and then it just syncs the settings and content to the device, so if I had a keyboard on it I'm not sure if I'd really ever use it. 

As I said, I'm very happy with it.  Seems very sturdy in my hand, and the screen has a lot of reading area to it.  Very easy to hold one handed for a long period of time.  Plus, since the cost of entry was so low, if in a month or two I decide I want to replace it with a tablet or pick up a tablet in addition to it, I'm not going to feel too bad.  If I pick up a Kindle Fire then I have my pick of screens to read on, have two devices, and still am at half the price point of an iPad.

I think that if I traveled more then I'd like the keyboard, as it would be easier for use at any wifi hot spots you come accross. But, my main use is around the house or on my commute, so it's easier for me to use my computer. But, to each their own.

Congrats! I wasn't sure what I would think of it, and how I'd like switching from paper to electronic, but it quickly won my heart. The amount of reading I do has easily increased several fold since I got it.

Like Feud, I wasn't sure what I would think about it - I'm somewhat old fashioned - I like physical books and had been resistant to e-readers for just that reason.  But when the wife insisted that she was getting it for me, well, what could I do? 

Now that I have it, I love it!  It hasn't left my side.  I amazed by the quality of the text on the screen, it looks just like print on paper - if I didn't know  better, I would say that I'm looking at some sort of a demo, with actual printed paper held under a clear screen for looks.  It really does look that much like paper text. 

I didn't get the 3g model, I don't see the necessity for it.  Like I said, my only purpose for the Kindle is reading - so internet browsing, color pages, and games, etc. were not important to me.  The wifi has been just fine - at my office (I don't have I-net at home-just use my phone's I-net) I downloaded a couple of books which took seconds (once I found my wifi password and plugged the 350 character password into the kindle) and I was done.  Got Uprising USA (I've read the version posted here naturally), and Condi Rice's new book.  Finished Uprising earlier today (I downloaded it yesterday) - I've had this thing stuck in my face constantly. 

The one possible downside to the kindle is the lack of a backlit screen, so in the dark you need an external light.  From the research I did, it seems that the backlit screens (on the Nook and most recent Kindle model) don't have the same high quality text, and the batteries don't last quite as long.  So I got an external clip-on light and it works just fine. 

If you're looking for an ereader for simply reading, I would highly recommend the Kindle.  Unless you don't have easy/frequent access to a WiFi network, or you're traveling frequently and would be downloading books while on the road, the 3G isn't really necessary. 


Anyways, that my experience so far. 

Bill

I just grabbed a Vizio 8" tablet and an archos 101 that i installed UrukDroid on.
both work damn fine as e readers.


Jim

Got a Kindle for X-mas.  Yeah, it works prett good, but make sure you get a good publisher copy.

For example, I got a gonzo fiction piece by Adam Pepper called Super Foetus, and the pages were mixed, you'd get the author and title of the book here and there, chapters would start at the end of the last page of the previous chapter and then move on, and there weren't even consistent indents.

Conversely, Hopalong Cassidy is amazingly well done, with lots of nice room between paragraphs, and no typos. 

The only thing I would change would be the keyboard - DAYUM them keys make my eyes squinchy!