I recently had the opportunity to review the new Sony Reader Digital Book, courtesy of Sony. I rarely accept review requests but this one looked like a cool gadget and since I write ebooks, I thought, "Why not?"
Honestly, I expected to tell you in this review that the Sony Reader was a cool gadget–and an expensive one at that. I assumed something like this would never be an item I might actually recommend someone buy unless you have cash falling out of your pockets. After all, I’m not Money Saving Mom for no reason!
Believe it or not, though, I was quite impressed with this gadget. So much so that I could see real benefit for a number of individuals. I’d even go so far as to say it could save you hassle and even money in certain circumstances.
PROS
--The Sony Reader is very light and compact, but not too small so that reading is cumbersome. Being an avid reader and always one to pack at least 4-5 books each trip we take (and sometimes even just for an hour-long car ride!), the realization that I could download books and store them all in one place with the Sony Reader was quite incredible. No more bulky bags or extra suitcase weight!
–The Sony Reader is user-friendly. I’m no techie, but in about ten minutes, I had set the Reader up, installed the software, and begun reading my first book.
–The Sony Reader is easy on the eyes. I don’t know what I was expecting, but I certainly was not expecting a digital ebook reader to have an exact page replica on my screen. It was almost as if I were holding the book in my hands!
–The Sony Reader is perfect for multi-task readers. If you’re like me in that you never can just stick with reading one book at a time, this Reader saves you the trouble of having to keep everything bookmarked or lug all the books with you when you go places. You can just whip it out, choose the book you’re in the mood to read, and click the button to go to the page where you left off!
CONS
–The Sony Reader can’t exactly replace a real book. At least for me, having a real book to mark up and dog ear just can’t ever be replaced by something on a screen.
–The Sony Reader is rather expensive. You knew I’d have to mention this, didn’t you? While I definitely think the Sony Reader is a fun gadget and would be especially beneficial to those who travel a lot, read a lot, and often buy books, I don’t think it’s for everyone. If you are barely making ends meet, save your money to buy groceries and pay your electric bill.
–The ebooks you can download for the Sony Reader are rather expensive. While Sony does offer a large library of Classics which can be downloaded for only $1.99 each and while the Reader comes with 100 free ebooks, if you want to buy newer releases or even some not-so-new releases, the prices are not much less than what you’d pay for a printed book. (You can browse the book titles and prices here.)
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