There’s been a steady increase in interest around Ebook readers in the UK recently, and since I’ve switched back to reading instead of watching video on the tube to and from work (no, really, I must be growing up or something), I decided it was time to have a proper look and see what’s what.

What is an Ebook Reader, then?

Ok, let’s start with a quick explanation of exactly what an Ebook Reader (or Ereader) is. The simple answer is: it’s a battery-powered screen you can read books on. You buy electronic copies of books online, transfer them to the device, and read them on the screen.

However, the simple answer is not the best answer. The key thing about Ereaders is the type of screen they have, and how this makes an Ereader a viable alternative to a normal book.

Normal computer displays are backlit, and this can make lengthy reading sessions uncomfortable since you’re basically staring at a light all the time, which can make your eyes tired. Ereader displays, on the other hand, aren’t backlit – so, just like paper, there’s nothing to strain your eyes.

Not only that, but Ereader displays look very similar to printed paper – they’re black and off-white (just like paper), and have a similar resolution to print. In fact, the first time I saw an Ereader in a shop I had to check that wasn’t just a non-working mock-up – the display really does look like it’s printed text. A few people have commented on the lack of colour, or lack of a backlight, but that’s the whole point – it really is just like a book, only more convenient (and I’ll come back to that point later).

There is one final important thing to note with Ereader displays, and that’s how little power they use. Normal LCD displays constantly use power to keep the picture on the screen. Ereader displays, on the other hand, use something called “E-ink”, and these displays only use power to change the screen – so when you “turn” a page, the display uses power to change the text – but once the text has changed, it will stay on the screen without using additional power. This means that Ereaders can last a very, very long time without needing to be recharged. Indeed, rather than measuring battery life in hours (like a laptop), it is measured by how many times you can turn a page on a single charge – and this is usually in the thousands. You could probably read at least eight average novels on a single charge – that’s not bad going!

How much do they cost?

Well, that’s the bad news about Ereaders – they’re not cheap. You’re looking at over a hundred quid for an Ereader – currently the Sony PRS-505 is going for £150 from John Lewis, which is cheaper than most other retailers, but still quite pricey for a book! The books themselves are pretty much the same price as normal books – which is odd, when you think that there’s no printing or shipping involved, but then there are websites to run so perhaps it balances out…

Where do I get the books from?

At the moment the main retailers for Ebooks in the UK are WH Smiths, Waterstones and Borders. There is also BooksOnBoard, a US website which sells to UK customers, but due to different licencing deals between the US and UK, not all books on their site can be bought if you’ve a UK customer. However, BoB do have books which aren’t available from the other three sites. It’s worth checking all four sites for a particular book, as prices often vary – for example, I bought The Lost Symbol for around £7 from Waterstones, the others were charging anywhere between £9 and £16. Ok, in this case it was more of a P.R. thing – like Amazon and Asda selling the hardback for £4.99 – but you get the idea. Shop around.

Once you’ve bought a book, you’ll be given a link to download the file, and once you’ve got it you can load the file onto your reader. Each reader can hold a large number of books at once, so you don’t have to worry about deleting books when you’ve finished them (unless you really want to).

The only thing to be careful of here is that you buy the correct format of book. Just like PCs and Macs use different software, some readers use different formats of books. However, recently a consensus has been reached between most of the manufacturers to support the “ePub” format, so this should make things simpler.

Some readers can also handle normal Acrobat PDF files – useful for taking a copy of your posh digital camera manual on holiday with you!

So why on earth would I buy an Ereader?

This was the question I asked myself a month ago. My first thought was that the average book costs around a fiver (from Amazon), so why not just keep buying normal books, the normal way? What’s so special about an Ebook reader that makes it worth that sort of money? Well, in my opinion, I can sum it up in one word – convenience. I was reading a 400-odd page novel on the tube the other week, and it was a bit awkward and uncomfortable trying to hold it with one hand (and I hate holding books with two hands for some reason). It was just too thick, and every time the train jolted it slipped in my hand. An Ebook reader, however, is slim enough that it can be held with one hand easily – no matter how many pages are in the book! Also, it takes up hardly any space in my bag (unlike the latest Dan Brown hardback would), which also means that, when we go on our cruise, it’ll be so much easier to take a load of books loaded on the Ereader rather than trying to fit real ones in my luggage.

Aren’t real books just, y’know, better?

I’m actually going off real books. As far as I can see, the only way real books are better at the moment is in the way you can very quickly flick through them to see what’s on each page. You can easily jump to the start of a chapter, or even a specific page, in an Ebook, but you can’t quickly flick through every page, front to back, to find that diagram or whatever. Ereaders take a second or so to turn a page, so fast flicking, in current models at least, is out. But it’s not like I do that all the time, so actually, it doesn’t bother me. There are a few other possible drawbacks, but I guess it just depends on your personal opinion as to whether they’re dealbreakers – to me, they’re not:

Sure, if the battery runs out, you’re kinda stuffed – but as I said earlier, you could easily read eight novels on a single charge, so the chances of you having to go that long without a chance to top it up are pretty remote (and if you were going to carry eight novels around with you, you might just as well carry the Ereader and a spare novel in case the battery runs out…!).

And of course, since it’s electronic, if you drop it in the bath it’ll probably be ruined – but then so would a normal book (albeit slightly cheaper to replace).

And finally, you wouldn’t be able to lend a book to someone else once you’d read it – Ebooks are tied to the buyer.

So, compared to the hassle of carrying ruddy big books around, I think an Ereader is pretty neat!

And finally – what’s the deal with the Amazon Kindle?

There’s been a few mentions of Amazon’s Kindle Ereader in the press this year, which is odd considering it’s not available in the UK yet. It’s been out in the States for over a year, though, and has proven to be quite popular.

The main thing with the Kindle is that you can easily buy books for it from Amazon – straight from the device itself, without having to use a computer. However, unlike readers from other manufacturers, you can’t buy books from other websites for it (and Amazon books won’t work on other readers). Is this a bad thing? Well, yes and no. The downside is that there is no competition – you can only buy the books Amazon sell, at their prices. The upside is that Amazon do seem to have a wider selection of books available (in the US anyway) and they seem to have a bit more influence over publishers than smaller retailers. And there’s also the fact you can browse and buy books on-the-go, and even download a sample chapter to see if it’s worth buying that book from the writer you’ve never heard of.

Anyway, until the Kindle is available in the UK – and currently there’s no firm date – we won’t know how the UK service compares to the existing offerings from Borders, Waterstones and WH Smiths.

Answer the question, then – are Ebook readers worth buying?

In my opinion, yes. I like that they’re smaller and more convenient to carry than real books, and you can slap a bunch of different books (and other documents) on an Ereader so you’ve always got a choice of what to read. I don’t like that they are relatively expensive, and the convenience may not be worth it to some people, but I’m not one of them!

I’ve bought the Sony PRS-505 and – so far – I’m happy with it. I’ll be writing another post on it soon.