The popularity of e-book readers grew enormously during the course of 2009. The release of the Amazon Kindle 2.0 and its larger sibling, the Kindle DX, followed up by competing readers like the Nook by Barnes and Noble and the Sony Daily Edition reader in the last six months of the year, firmly established both e-books and e-book readers in the consumer market place. By early 2010 there was a wide variety of e-book readers for prospective customers to choose from – including the Apple iPad, which includes e-book reader functionality amongst its many options.

Now that the “early adopters” have picked up on e-book readers, the next wave of possible customers will come from more traditional book readers. Although it’s possible to find many (very many) reviews of e-book readers on-line, and increasingly in magazines and newspapers, the current crop of customers are possibly more interested to find out how e-book readers stack up against “real” books as opposed to how they compare with other e-book readers. They want to know if they will miss the feel of a conventional book.

Actually, the e-ink display technology which is used in the latest e-book readers is really very good. It provides a reading experience which is nothing like reading on a computer monitor – it is much more similar to reading standard text written on paper.

When you “turn the page” on an e-book reader, it flickers and goes dark just for an instant. However, these page turns are much faster now than they were as little as a year ago. After one or two reading sessions you won’t be aware of them at all. In fact, when you’re enjoying a good book, you will be completely unaware of the fact that you’re reading it on an electronic device rather than leafing through the pages of a more traditional paper edition.

The majority of e-book readers are very undemanding to use. A recent survey of American e-book reader owners found that 80% of them actually preferred using their e-book readers to reading a conventional book. That’s a fairly strong endorsement – but bearing in mind how comfortable e-book readers are to operate one-handed, on a busy train or bus, or sitting propped up in bed – it’s possibly less surprising than it appears at first glance.

Over and above from the numerous benefits of the e-book reader hardware, the e-books to read on them are less expensive than conventional books. They don’t consume paper, ink or bindings and there are no (or very small) delivery fees. They are also, for just the same reasons, much more environmentally friendly than “real” books – even when the materials and energy used in the manufacture and delivery of the readers themselves are taken into account.

E-book readers, all in all, have a good deal to recommend them. They are the future of reading and, if you read a book a week or so, could well be considerably cheaper than conventional books. In the end, it’s a matter of personal preference – but an e-book reader may well be an option which you should think about.

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