Finally decided on the Amazon Kindle

Well, I wanted to get an EReader, so I did some digging. I knew about the Amazon Kindle (mainly because I buy most of my books from them), but I wanted to see what the other options were. What it came down to was the battle between an Amazon Kindle and a Barnes & Noble Nook.


The one thing that I like about the Nook is that you don't need anything special to download purchased ebooks. You just download an EPUB (which is a standardized format) file to your computer. This file can be imported into programs such as Calibre. In the case of the Amazon Kindle, you need to install Kindle for PC (or whatever platform your on) to download your purchased ebooks. I'm a Linux user and there isn't a Kindle for Linux, so I tried running Kindle for PC using Wine. It worked flawlessly.


When deciding which EReader to buy I was heavily leaning towards the Nook. Mainly due to the standard file format of their ebooks and the compatibility with Linux. However, as I researched the Readers, I found that the Kindle has better quality text, is lighter and the battery life is almost 3-times that of the Nook. The other deciding factor was that the Nook uses a "touch screen". I HATE TOUCH-SCREENS!!! So, the Kindle was an obvious choice.


Price-wise, the Nook and the Kindle are in the same ballpark. As far as the digital library goes, it looks like the Nook has more titles available for it. But, with programs like Calibre, I can easily convert EPUB books to a format that the Kindle can use. I'm not sure on how to go about copying a book from my computer to the Kindle works, but I'm sure when I get to that bridge it shouldn't be too difficult (assuming I can hook the Kindle to a PC).


My new Kindle should be here sometime next week! I'm looking forward to trying it out!