This baby is going on my wishlist for sure. Wow! I’ve recently seen the Amazon Kindle go on sale, but reviews have been mixed. So I did a little comparison shopping and came across this amazing device: the Sony PRS300BC Digital Reader. It’s pricey, but it’s still less expensive than the Amazon Kindle (by $60!!). The Kindle accesses e-books by wireless, and you have to pay per book and monthly for magazine subscriptions. But the Sony Digital Reader gets e-books from your computer (you use Sony’s software to buy books and download them to your computer, where you then load them into the Sony Reader). Plus, with Sony’s Reader, you can access the free books on Google Books, where I do a lot of my reading. Amazon’s Kindle does not give you this option, a real bummer for me.
Does anyone have a Sony? Are you satisfied with it? I don’t know of any e-readers besides the Kindle, the Sony, and another very expensive unknown brand, Ectaco. I did see another gadget called eBookman (by Ectaco) for only $80; I haven’t checked that out but that looks interesting as well.
I won’t be getting the Sony any time soon, anyway- I’m waiting for it to go on sale. It’s selling at Buy.com for $199 with free shipping. That’s a really good price for a digital reader, but it’s still too much for my budget just yet. I’m going to wait in the sidelines and see if prices come down before I get one. But I would LOVE one, I know that! And I do like that the Sony comes in different colors, especially pink. I’m not very fond of the color pink, but I notice that when I buy pink stuff, it’s rarely used by the men of the house, heh heh. 
It would make a superb gift, though! Check it out at Buy.com if you’re looking for a nifty gadget. I love it!
12. October 2009 at 9:18 pm
I totally want a Sony e-reader, but can’t justify having a dedicated device. Not right now, anyway.
Check out the BeBook reader, too. I got to play with one back in June; it’s a nice one, too. Might be a toss-up between that and the Sony, if someone was willing to give me one, no strings attached.
12. October 2009 at 9:30 pm
Thanks for the tip, Susan! I will check that one out!
13. October 2009 at 8:05 am
I’ve been eyeballing these readers ever since they first came out, but because of the expense I’m going to see what happens in the industry for a while. I don’t want to get stuck with the 8-track player of Ereaders! I’m not even sure if I will like reading this way, but it would be great because I’m usually reading several books at once for various reasons and I will only have one thing not to lose!
13. October 2009 at 12:05 pm
I soooo want an e-reader but the cost is still too high for me too. I read everything I can about all the different brands and watch the price fluctuations (there aren’t any). I didn’t know about the Kindle not being able to download Google books; that’s good to know. I understood the Sony didn’t have as many books available for download as Kindle. Maybe that will change if the Sony is that much cheaper. I have a friend who has a Kindle and LOVES it. She says she has saved a lot of money considering that she reads a lot of books (as I do).
13. October 2009 at 5:27 pm
I try to get my books from the library, saving me money and storage, but our library system actually has a very poor selection of books. I read a lot of non-fiction, non-celebrity biography, which seems to go heavily against the public library grain. :S An e-reader would save me $$ on such things, but I still have a hard time swallowing $8-10 per digital book.