Sell me on a reader Borebros

[pilonv1]

And don't recommend an iPad.

My brothers wife has a Sony reader, it's pretty nice and has a touch screen but no wifi and you can't buy from the Sony store without a US credit card.

Is there a reason I shouldn't get a Kindle? I like the fact I can set it up for the missus to get books straight from Amazon rather than stuffing around converting ebooks.

[MCD]

Can you buy digital books from Amazon? if yes then go for the Kindle.

[pilonv1]

The Australian store is a bit smaller than the US one (only about 500,000 books currently) but it seems to have a good range.

[MCD]

Maybe this year's CES will have something for you.

Wait a couple more days and see.

[Cormacaroni]

The Australian store is a bit smaller than the US one (only about 500,000 books currently) but it seems to have a good range.

just set your current address to the US and you can probably* buy all your stuff from the US store like me, including the region-locked stuff.

*assuming there is no weirdness with Oz that I don't know about. The amazon account you buy the kindle with is linked to it automatically, but AFAIK you can just sign in and out at will.

[Cormacaroni]

And yeah, Kindle is awesome. Way better than iPad for reading on, unless you really need a backlit screen to read in bed or something.

[Groogrux]

My wife and I are going with the Nook.  As to which version we're getting is still TBD.  But I'm starting to discover the Nook is really only good to a small group of people.  I don't know how B&N stands up to Amazon on the international scale. 

I will say that B&N did just release the Nook Color a couple of months ago, and if you don't have a problem with backlit screens (people are saying that this is the best one by-far for reading) then this might be a good option for you.

[Cormacaroni]

there is one TINY problem with the Nook: Barnes & Noble is in big financial trouble. Is that really an infrastructure you want to commit to?

[Bildi]

I just bought a Kindle, it's great.  I don't even buy anything on it, I just read free books and also download sample chapters of books from Amazon to help decide if I want to buy the paperback.

The free 3G sold me - being able to email and do basic internet while away from home will be really handy.  The way it provides a reader format for many web pages such as wikipedia makes the browser pretty decent.  Works great with uncyclopedia too.

If you've got no porn at your holiday destination it even works OK for pics in a pinch.

[Cormacaroni]

Ah, once you find out how easy it is to buy books, and the joy of instant delivery, it's hard not to start picking 'em up. It's like steam - they make buying so painless that it's preferable to piracy for me most of the time.

We should all be lending each other stuff, actually (wonder if that works across regions?)

[Bildi]

Another handy thing which I didn't really know before I bought was the ability to email books to the Kindle.  It means you can browse on any computer, email the book to your Kindle email address, and it'll download when you next turn it on.  So no need to plug into a computer.  I use it a lot since I'm often on computers away from home which is where my Kindle mostly stays.

I have two Kindles on the same account, so it's easy to share books between the two of us.  I'm not sure how other ereaders compare in this regard.

Other useful things.  I bought this Kindle case and it's really good:
http://cgi.ebay.com/Black-Leather-Case-Cover-Ebook-Amazon-Kindle-3-3G-/200529987562?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item2eb084c7ea#ht_3844wt_1114

And I bought this travel light:
http://www.amazon.com/Mighty-Bright-TravelFlex-Light-Silver/dp/193500932X/ref=pd_sim_k_1
It doesn't really clamp to the Kindle itself very well (which I knew before I bought it, although it does sort of hang on if you're not moving much) but clips to a case of course and only uses one AAA battery which is good.  It's heaps bright and very light so works well for books.  You can also get a Might Bright that clips directly to a Kindle but it uses 3 AAA batteries.

[Groogrux]

Did Amazon actually enable lending for the Kindle?  I was told that was still a few months away.

[pilonv1]

So I'm trying to buy a kindle and a cover from amazon, and it tells me they cant ship to my region, and I need to pick a Kindle for my area. Fair enough, but it wont ship the cover to Australia. smh amazon, it's just a piece of leather.

[Groogrux]

If all else fails, ship it to a Bore member that can recieve it and have them ship it to you.  Or buy it from somewhere else.

And an update on my end:  Ever since the start of this discussion along with quite a few others, I think the wife and I have decided to go with the Kindle as well.

[Cormacaroni]

Yeah, free 3G is nuts. Definitely a USP.
Cormac, can you get manga on Kindle yet? It's kind of baffling how distinguished mentally-challenged Japan is about anything digital, but thought I'd ask on the off chance.

You can buy some from amazon, yeah, but why would you ever do that if you have an iPad? The Kindle is so sluggish that reading manga on it would be pretty painful. Of course you can just load it up with pdfs but trust me, that's about as much fun as a slap in the nuts with a salmon.