Buying an ereader: Kindle, nook or Sony Pocket Reader

[pslasher.livejournal.com]

Hey everyone! I’m probably going to be buying an ereader for Christmas and have narrowed it down to the nook, Kindle or Sony Pocket Reader. But I keep debating over them and thought I’d see what the users have to say.

Amothea says that the Sony Pocket Reader supports collections and has excellent sorting abilities:
My Supernatural collection has over 300 stories but I can within the collections sort by date, author, title, and etc. And once I have the title or author selected it gives me a list A-Z so I can jump to the author at the end very quickly.
Do the Kindle or Nook do anything similar, like support the tags from Calibre? I prefer the look and feel of the nook and Kindle, and they are less expensive than the Sony, but this feature is excellent.

　
Kindle: I REALLY like the long battery life and light weight of the 3G but I have a few questions.

1. I think I heard that fics uploaded to the Kindle from Calibre can be tagged and the Kindle will display those tags and the related ebooks, but I’d like that to be confirmed.
2. Can you browse the web on the Kindle? I think I’d really use that feature for finding new fic that I want to put on the device, and I know the nook can do it.

　
Nook: I LOVE the ability to add extra storage, and to browse the web. I think I’d use the web browsing to find new fic often.

1. Does the nook (black and white) have the ability to create My Shelves like the nook color? Can you sort through books in a collection by author, title, ect?


Is there anything I need to know, good or bad, about the devices? I think I’m leaning towards the nook, but I’m still not sure. I’ve got more thoughts about ereaders here.

Comments

[yourlibrarian]

Given Amazon's constant tendency to yank stuff out of a user's online archive, I'd definitely vote against the Kindle, even if your primary usage isn't for Amazon content. However price-wise, it's hard to argue against the Kindle and Nook. We recently looked at the Sony pocket and I'd say one plus is its size in terms of portability compared to the other two. Although we got the Daily Edition, its weight is noticeably lighter than the Nook, and it has a larger screen than the Kindle. So one thing I'd suggest is to think of how and when you plan to use the reader. Holding a heavier reader in the hand can get tiring after a while, but if you're likely to be reading in brief bursts or sitting up at a table, this probably won't be a problem.

My SO just bought a Sony and has used Calibre for tagging because he likes it metadata function. However he is thrilled that the Sony allows him to treat the reader like a hard drive and just transfer stuff over as he likes. He dislikes the way Calibre tends to put stuff in layers of folders. So far as I know, of the three readers, Sony is the only one that allows this sort of treatment.

[pslasher.livejournal.com]

Oh wow, I came back to a ton of comments!

I do remember hearing about Amazon pulling that book and I didn't like that one bit. Has it been done since?

Weight is a factor for me. At times I read for very long stretches and I think the nook is a little heavier than I would prefer - points to the Kindle for that.

One of the commenters below said the Kindle can be treated as a hard drive, so that's good to know.

[yourlibrarian]

Yes and no. In that first instance Amazon was sued for removing content from both the Kindles themselves as well as the online archive (where you can redownload the content you've purchased). As a result of losing the lawsuit they have stated they will not remove items directly from the Kindle in the future.

They have, however, removed items from online archives since, the latest being just a few weeks ago.

Yes, weight is a factor for me too, and in other reviews I've seen people mention hand-size as a factor for what reader they were most comfortable using. So I think it's a factor to consider, as is memory/expansion abilities if you plan to store a lot of stuff on it as opposed to reading and deleting (which is what I tend to do).

[pslasher.livejournal.com]

Well it's good that they won't be deleting from Kindles, but it still sucks that they would delete from the online archive. I don't think that's right at all.

I did get a Kindle and it's extremely light - I've read for hours with it so far and it doesn't get tiring.

[taylorgibbs.livejournal.com]

I can transfer stuff over to the Kindle and Nook, they show as a hard drive on my system. I can also back up my reader to my PC that way :)

[pslasher.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the tip! I wound up getting a Kindle and it's very easy to transfer books to it.