CONTRIBUTED BY HEATHER HANSEN
I am a big fan of electronic reading. 99.999% of the books I purchase are in eBook format, and have been for over a year. I will not go back to traditional books as it doesn’t fit in with my lifestyle.
I love the convenience of taking a book anywhere, the ease of purchasing them, the buy-me-right-now-because-you-know-you-want-me availability – and I never have to wait till it ships. If I want a book, I can have it in the time it takes to type in my credit card information and I never have to change out of my PJ’s.
Um, yes… I have purchased that “next book in the series” at 3 am because I had to find out what happened. I’m not proud of it. The first step to recovery is admitting addiction. I guess that could be seen as a negative to reading eBooks. Though, I chose to see it as positive.
I want to tell everyone who says, “I could never do an eBook. I can’t give up paper. It’s not the same.” Yes, it’s not the same – it’s better.
Why should you consider eReading? Well, besides the fact that it’s green and it will save you money – if you live on Okinawa it will save you lots of frustration.
On Okinawa… Do I need to make a comment on the sad selection of books they have for sale? Seriously? There’s a reason that most of them are dusty. Worse, they don’t even carry the genres I would buy.
What’s a person to do? You can go to the library. Except, once again, they don’t carry anything I’m interested in reading. And you can order from Amazon or Barnes and Noble… but you have to wait for it to ship to you. I hate to wait. AND I hate paying for shipping. AND I hate paying full price for books.
Reading on an eBook device is not like reading on a computer (unless you chose one with a backlit display). Most of them use eInk technology. In your spare time you can Google eInk, but basically it means that it uses particles that are “suspended” to make the reader look like paper. Because of that, it uses very little power (making your battery stay charged for longer periods of time) and is easy on the eyes.
They also are space efficient. I don’t know about you, but these tiny Okinawa houses cannot handle my book collection. When you’re done with a book it’s on your computer taking up almost no space. After a while, burn it on a disk and keep it forever.
Things to think about before you purchase an eReader:
Digital Rights Management (DRM) – formats are not compatible with one another.
I think the very first thing that everyone who is considering an eBook should understand is what is DRM, and what does it do? DRM is the encryption that various retailers place on your book to prevent you from sharing it with others. It’s similar to what is on a DVD and downloaded music from iTunes.
Any new book sold from a major publisher will have DRM. Old titles (those that have lost their copyright) and ebooks sold by smaller online venues may not have them. These non-DRM books are the only ones that can be used on any device.
What you must be aware of, is that one DRM is not compatible with another. So, if you decide to purchase a Sony reader, you can only purchase books from the Sony store that use their DRM – and so on, for the majority of the other readers (I will break them down for you).
Why should this matter to you? Well, in order to make an informed decision, you should look at all the costs involved. Sony tends to carry books at a higher price than I can find elsewhere. Why should I pay $10 (plus) for a book that I can find other places online for under $5 (and often with rebates and buyers rewards that make it even less)? Sounds silly, right? Even though I’ll fully admit that the Sony reader is sexy — but having a sexy looking reader does not equal money in my pocket. When Sony claims that their eReader is now “open” – it only means that you can use non-DRM books as well as the Sony DRM.
Not that I’m picking on Sony. They have a really terrific reader and you would be happy with it if you decided to purchase one. I’m only using them as an example. Each reader has its own set of drawbacks. I’ll break them all down and let you decide.
Where are you going to buy your books?
The next thing you need to consider is where you are going to be purchasing your books. As in the description of the Sony DRM above, please understand that most readers (Sony, Amazon, eBookwise) force you to buy from their stores. I encourage you to log onto their sites and see if they carry books that you’d want to buy. Compare the prices. Look at their specials.
There are other DRM formats on the market as well as other retailers. For instance, online booksellers Like Fictionwise and Books on Board sell various formats, often at a discounted price.
Personally I like to use the Mobipocket format because I can get a DRM code for up to four eReaders. I do not, however, buy Mobipocket through their company. I purchase most of my books through Fictionwise in the Mobipocket format.
You can also purchase books straight from the publisher (again, not for Amazon, Sony, or eBookwise readers). Here’s the link to a few publisher ebook stores:
I would try to stay away from buying directly from the retailers for two reasons. One, you can often find a better deal at one of the other online booksellers for the same book and two, the online booksellers will keep a copy of your purchase in case you lose your electronic copy. The publishers will not.
Lights / backlights
Some readers come with a backlight option. This can be convenient to read in bed. Be made aware if you are using a backlight, the battery for your reader will drop significantly. And often, if you have a backlight option, those readers will not be able to be read in direct sunlight.
If you have a reader without a backlight, you can always clip a book light onto the cover.
Battery capabilities
This is a biggie! Make sure you take into consideration how long the battery will last for your reader. Are you a heavy reader? If so, you don’t want to end up with a reader that will last only a few hours and find yourself tethered to an outlet.
If you purchase a designated eReader, this shouldn’t be such a big deal because they are designed to be used for many hours at a time. You do need to be careful when purchasing a device that is not specifically made to be an eReader – that’s when you’ll have battery issues.
SOME EREADER OPTIONS:
Apple iPad (UPDATE CONTRIBUTED BY LEEANN STEVENS, February 2011)
I surprised my husband, John, with an iPad for his birthday! And it was a wonderful surprise. For a few weeks before his birthday, he talked about getting a Kindle. John is a big reader, 99% of the books in our home are his. But I decided to go with the iPad cause there is SO much more you can do with it. So, I bought the 16 GB with WiFi only for $489 from Kadena BX (they offer a $10 discount).
For reading books on the iPad, you have to download the iBook App from the App store. It is free to download. The App is very user friendly. You can read a preview of the book before buying it — you get a whole chapter to browse through before you buy it.
Once you download the books onto your iPad, they are available to you on your iPod and iPhone as well! The backlight is a great advantage, this allows you to read in bed while the lights are still out. You can turn the iPad horizontally to view two pages or vertically for one page at a time.
Viewing options: At the top left corner, there are 2 options: access the library and accessing the books contents. You can also return to where you last left. At the bottom of the page, there is a scroll bar, with this you can also scroll to any page you want. At the top right hand corner, you can adjust the brightness of your pages, from completely dark to completely bright. You can also change the font for all your iBooks. You have 6 fonts to choose from. And you can also change the size of your letters (about 9 sizes to choose from). You can also give your pages a sepia look.
Reading options: You can search the book for a specific words or phrases. Once you have entered your search words or phrases; you can do a Google search or a Wikipedia search as well. You can also bookmark the pages. Once you bookmark pages, you can return to the book contents and you can view the bookmarked pages right beside the table of contents tab. With one touch you can go the pages bookmarked from here. The bookmarked pages have the chapters, page number and the date it was bookmarked. You can also resume anytime to where you left right from this page. Over here you can also view your highlighted pages as well.
While flipping through pages, you have a couple of options. Who knew flipping through pages had options? You can turn it quickly or do a slow turn. The slower flipping of pages is fun! As you flip the page, you can see what’s on the other side of the page while flipping!
Double click words/phrases or passages and with that, a menu pops up. The menu includes Copy, Dictionary, Highlight, Note and Search options. With the copy option, you can paste it in your Notes App. If you choose the dictionary option, a dictionary will pop up for you, without leaving the page. Highlighted text has its own sub menu. You can choose colors for your highlighter (yellow, green, blue, pink or purple). You can also access the note option from here which allows you to add sticky notes where ever you want! Great, non messy way to keep notes.
The iPad has upto 10 hours of battery life! There are 150,000+ books at the iBookStoreBooks and they range from $9.99 to $14.99. There are a lot of free Ebook Apps too!!
You can also download the Kindle on the iPad. You can get a lot of books for free there too! New releases on the Kindle start from $9.99. Amazon offers a wide range of free books at their website, check it out here. The Kindle App has the following options, too; bookmark your pages, search options, a menu option that has a go to menu- cover, table of contents, the beginning of the book, location, book extras (shows me characters and people in the book, important places etc.) and my notes and marks; And lastly you can adjust the font size, background colors, fonts, page brightness and option to view one page or two pages at a time. With the Kindle, your pages slide across but doesn’t flip.
John enjoys his ipad and I hope you do, too!
Amazon Kindle (UPDATE CONTRIBUTED BY HEATHER GELORMINE, April 2011) 
Cost: $139 for the basic Wi-Fi version
Display: 6″ diagonal E-Ink® pearl electronic paper display, 600 x 800 pixel resolution at 167 ppi, 4-level gray scale
Size: 7.5″ x 4.8″ x 0.335″
Weight: 8.5 ounces
Here’s the thing: the Kindle is great. I bought mine in late June 2009, 32 days before the price on the 2nd generation dropped from $265 to $199. Was I initially upset that I paid the higher price? Yes. Did I get over it quickly? Oh yes. And now the latest version is even smaller, faster, and cheaper.
With the basic Wi-Fi version you can turn on your wireless connection (at home or wherever you have access to free WiFi), shop in the Amazon Kindle store and start reading a minute later. For me this was not a deal-breaker in any sense of the word; although I’m what one friend refers to as an “extreme reader” I’m not so impatient that I have to have a new book RIGHT NOW WITHOUT WAITING.
But if you’re sitting on the beach at Okuma and run out of books to read but don’t want to schlep your laptop to the restaurant to take advantage of their free WiFi, perhaps the 3G + Wireless or larger-screen DX are better options, though each of those comes with a higher price tag. However, these may also allow you to surf the web a bit, whereas the WiFi version does not.
The big draw of the Kindle is its electronic ink. It’s not backlit so you will need an external source of light to illuminate your screen if you’re reading in bed at night or on an airplane, but my book light does the job well. I’ve read for hours on end through my Kindle without my eyes getting tired they way they often do after I’ve been staring at a computer screen. And it’s lightweight and small enough that it fits well in my purse or backpack to bring it most anywhere. Plus when I have the wireless turned off I can read for several weeks without every needing to recharge the unit.
The biggest downfall to the Kindle is the price of its books. Back when I first got mine e-books cost no more than $9.99, but two years later many are costing upwards of $15 for a single book, particularly new releases. On the flip side of this, many publishers will often promote an author’s new book by offering others for a very low cost or for free; many of the now out-of-print classics are also often offered at no cost. It requires a bit of checking in on a regular basis but I’ve discovered some great authors this way. And the selection of books for sale is enormous. Really, there are few books I’ve looked for on Kindle that haven’t been available, and they’re often available in this format before being published in hard cover. If you pre-order a book it’ll be sent to your account at midnight of the publishing day.
One other aspect of the Kindle that I especially love is its integration with my iPhone. I can read several chapters or pages on either my Kindle or through the app on my phone and they’ll automatically sync to the farthest point with each other so that I can pick it up wherever I am. Note: if you have an iPhone or iPad/Blackberry/Android/Windows phone you can put the app on any of these types of smartphones and create an account without needing an actual Kindle itself. (And I’m not saying this out loud, but I hooked up my Amazon account to the apps on my husband’s, sister’s, and father’s iPhones as well, so that they can download any of the books I’ve bought to read for themselves. I wouldn’t recommend doing this with anyone you don’t trust not to abuse having access to a credit card on file, though.)
In all, I’ve found that the biggest downfall to reading on a Kindle versus a paperback is my inability to share those books with friends or family without also loaning out my unit. And I’m just not that nice.
I do like the Sony reader. It has a sleek design and is lightweight. The programming is also a plus, the books load fast and the quality is awesome.
The Sony reader comes in two options a less expensive one without a backlight – and then the upgraded version.
Cost: starting at $299.99
Display: 6” (the upgraded version has a touch screen)
Size: Approx. 5 1/9 x 6 7/9 x 13/32 inches (127.6 x 174.3 x 9.7 mm)
Weight: 10 oz. without soft cover
The PX on Foster and BX on Kadena are both carrying the Sony 505 for $289. You might want to go play with it before you make your decision. At least you can get an up close and personal look at eInk technology.
This is the option I went with. Once again, my personal specifications were that it must be Mobipocket compatible (as I wanted to purchase my books through Fictionwise and have numerous DRM codes). I really like this one. It works well. I’d recommend it.
Cost: $279.99 (on sale now)
Display: ePaper, 600*800 (6 inch) (E-Ink technology)
Size: 184mm(l)*120mm(w)*10mm(h)
Weight: 220gr (incl. battery)
I have not used this eReader. But I like the price. Price may be the number one consideration when starting out. You may not want to spend a lot of money to see if you like eReading. With the eBookwise reader, you can purchase books from Fictionwise. However, I do not think you would be able to purchase books from another retailer.
Cost: starting at $109.95
Display: Back-lit 5.5″ diagonal 4-bit grayscale LCD touch screen; half-VGA resolution
Size: 5″ x 7.5″ x 1.5″
Weight: 18 ounces
Get Creative!
If you want to see if you like eReading, but don’t want to purchase a dedicated eReading device, you may be able to read from a device you already have.
Some of those options are: iPod, iTouch, smart phone, PDA, computer, Palm Pilot, etc. If you have a device you think you can use, Google it. You’d be surprised by the amount of devices that you can program to read books. (You can also leave a comment here and I, or someone else, may be able to point you in the right direction).
If you’re still not convinced, try a free book. There are plenty of books that have fallen out of copyright and are free to download. Planet PDF and Project Gutenberg are two sites that you can start with.
This is not a comprehensive list of all the eReaders on the market. Nor is it a list of all the places you can purchase online books. It’s meant to be a jumping off point to get you started. If you happen to have a different eReader or bookseller that you’d like to suggest, please leave a comment and let us know about it, or email Joelle to have your updated review added right here into the post.
Thanks for the info on this. I’ve been really wanting to try one of these out. I’m really addicted to reading and books, so I can’t see myself not buying hard copies of books, but I think this would be a good option for me when I can’t find a book, want instant access, or don’t want to wait for a book to ship to me.
WOW! I had no idea. I thought I had to read e-books on my main computer and that:s why I always said “yuck!” I can:t wait to check this out! Up till now I thought my only alternative was books-on-cd, which I use all the time, but the big ones eat up all the space on my ipod! Thanks for the techie update.
My mom a teacher at Lester, gave me a Sony Reader and I love it. I usually use it for traveling. My mom’s gone through 4 because she keeps upgrading. She loves it! I don’t like the fact that it’s propietary, but it is easy to use and read.
what an informative post. my husband LOVES his kindle- so easy to take when he deploys. Good info! I however, still adore the smell of books. Really, the smell of the printed pages.
How does he get the Kindle to download books? Do you hide your ISP?
Thanks for the informative post! I`ve been trying to decide between all of these for a few months now but I`m not happy with the restrictions each places on their product. But with no shelving space left in my house, I think I really need to make a decision soon!
I have a Sony PR-505 and LOVE it. The Sony books are a bit more expensive than other ebook formats, but they consistently have sales and email codes for money or % off. I also like their “Bundle” choices–4 or 5 books from the same author at a discount…really convenient if there’s a series I want to try or an author that I really like. I have been nothing but thrilled with it since I bought it a year and a half ago. Their customer service is great too–mine got stepped on about 2 months after purchase, and they replaced it with a brand new one, no questions asked.
It IS sleek and sexy, super thin, and I really just can’t say enough wonderful things about it. I still love my regular books, still buy them often, but the eReader is a fantastic, convenient addition to my huge library.
Fantastic post!
Heather – first of all, INCREDIBLY informative, well-written, and all around kick-booty post!!! HURRAY!
My husband has had a kindle for a while and it takes less than a few minutes to download books to it. No IP masking that I know of, he does it all through Amazon. He takes that thing with him all over the place, and I’d imagine for a deployment it’d be ideal too.
Staci – I hear you, but with space issues in our home, and the fact that we really don’t read books twice – it’s a great solution. And the eReaders also are able to highlight, bookmark, look up words in the dictionary, and you can also be reading more than one book at a time if you so desire – all in the size of a small notebook. It looks like reading a newspaper, it’s pretty amazing.
Anyway. I’m all for it, and so’s my hubby. Saves trees too!
I’m starting to wonder why Amazon hates me! LOL. Every time I try to download anything from them, I get the “you’re in Japan—so sorry” page. It’s very sad.
Wonderful point, Aviva, about bookmarking, highlighting and the dictionary. I forgot to include that. Oops! But those really are great tools.
I had almost given up on getting an electronic reader. This post re-Kindled(haha get it) my need for one. I have read almost everything in the library that is worth reading. I hate waiting for books in the mail and my husband gets mad when I read on the computer. I need one now. I am leaning toward the Sony one just because it’s pretty. What a great post!
Wow- what a super post! I first heard about the Kindle over a year ago and got really excited about it- until I checked out the price. It’s come down a lot in price since then and I didn’t realize until reading your overview there were alternatives to the Kindle, as well.
I’ll have to start looking into what’s even available in e-books. Nobody ever has the books I want except Amazon since I tend to read older books that not many people are interested in.
I also hate to wait when I’m excited about a great book. I hear the average wait for mail in Japan is just over one month? I supposed priority mail won’t work with an APO address, either. There’s no way I can wait that long…
yep, the Kindle is starting to look better by the minute! Thanks for the great overview!
Great topic and my first try at commenting on this site. I’ve had the Amazon Kindle Reader since last July and it’s been great. I have no problems downloading e-books to my Mac each of which take about 10 seconds on our fiber-optic internet. From there it’s as simple as drag and drop to transfer. In CONUS you can enable the Verizon Whispernet (no charge) and shop wirelessly. There are some 1stGen ergonomic issues but you get used to it. Rumor has it, Amazon is releasing a 2G Kindle in about two weeks so I’d advise anyone interested to hold off until then.
Hi, Craig! Thanks for leaving your feedback on the Kindle.
I wanted to clarify the free Whispernet for other readers, if I may. While Whispernet is free of charge to use and browse for books, there are charges for certain things if you download them via Whispernet. Such as conversion of personal documents (currently $0.10 each).
link to amazon.com
link to amazon.com
Great info!! I think that if I had a bit more time, I would read e-books. I am really in love with audio books. I can listen while I do the dishes. I can listen while I mow. Best of all, I can listen in the dark. I also find that listening helps me imagine more than traditional reading. If you are like me and dont have the time to read….LISTEN!!!
I have the Sony PRS 700 and absolutely love it. I doubt I will ever go back to paper books. With the 700 I know I can download a variety of formats, even my college text books which is really helpful. My daughter has a hard time reading the small print in books so I download what she wants and am able to adjust the font up to XXL to make it easier to read.
I just ordered my bebook and I can not wait to get it. Thank you Heather for all the great information.
Great breakdown on e-readers. It’s nice to see such a complete comparison of what’s out there.
(Full disclosure – I used to be one of the librarians at Foster.)
Please, please, PLEASE,if the library doesn’t have anything that you want to read, notify the staff. If the book you want is not available at one of the many libraries on island it can be inter-library loaned from the US. If it is a particular genre or author that you think is lacking it is possible to add it to the purchase list.
I implore all the island readers to not suffer in silence. Library staff members actually appreciate constructive criticism and input. And while having print books shipped isn’t always lightening fast it does save you money. Particularly during this economic time the library can save you money on books, movies, and magazines.
Finally, a big THANK YOU. I really like reading “okinawa hai!” It lets me keep track of all the island doings and keeps me inspired to return to Okinawa ASAP!
Great info…thanks for the post. I don’t know that I would ever go over to ereading completely but it might be nice for a trip and I definitely can think of a few family members that would like one. I love my books…I love the smell, the feel and the trading I can do with them….but this informative post has really helped clear up some mystery on the ereaders out there. Thanks.
I will be moving to Okinawa in August to teach..as a civilian. Are there libraries available for those not associated with the military/air force? If not, where would you go to get inexpensive eBooks?
Hi, Sarah. As stated in both the article and the comments, there are libraries. There are branches located on Foster and Kadena. I’m not sure about the bases to the north. I haven’t looked.
For those who have ordered their Bebook while in Okinawa, would you mind telling me how much was shipping? I know that the Bebook is an incarnation of Hanlin (also sold as the EZ reader in the US) and is mostly sold in the UK.
Will they ship directly to an APO or do you need an intermediary?
Diana,
My mom bought my BeBook and then mailed it to me, so I didn’t realize at the time I wrote the article that they only ship FedEx. You’ll need to have it shipped to the states, or here at a physical address (like your husband’s command). Sorry about that! I believe the shipping cost is around $30.
Heather H
Heather-
Just wanted to throw a couple of ideas out to you. I haven’t used them for ebooks but having worked in various places outside the US I’ve run into issues with sites that won’t work because of my location or firewalls blocking access that I’ve managed to get around using one of a couple techniques.
First is using a proxy server. Basically your web browser is setup with a proxy server address and after that all traffic from your browser looks like it’s coming from the location where the proxy server is located. I generally pick one from this site link to publicproxyservers.com to use. They also have a quick over view of what they are and how to set them up.
Second is using a VPN that routes and encrypts all the the traffic from my computer back through a location in the states. I have an account with publicvpn.com – it’s pretty cheap at $6.95 a month and works very well.
One other possible issue that you may be having, especially with amazon or itunes, is that you have an account you registered with a non-US mailing address or billing address for your credit card payments. There are a few services out there that you can get that will give you an address in the US and then forward stuff onto you where ever you are located. I’ve used them in Dubai for ordering from amazon and they work well, however for the life of me I can’t find the name of the company that I use. If I can I’ll post it up later.
Great review by the way – I’m considering which way to go and was leaning towards the sony, but I’m going to take another look around first. Especially with the new kindle coming out tomorrow. I don’t need the keyboard or EVDO, but the platform looks nice.
Thanks,
Andras
Thank you for the update Heather! ^_^
Also, if anyone is interested in reading up on electronic readers, wander over to:
link to mobileread.com
I’ve been getting some very good information from the people in the forums.
For any of you interested in getting the BeBook, their company has announced a new one coming out this summer. No word yet on price, but it will have a touchscreen and note-taking capabilities.
For those of you with the e reader, have you had any problems downloading books here on Okinawa? Any issues at all being outside the US?
This is what is says on Sony’s site…Note: Use of companion eBook Store limited to U.S. and Canadian residents. Certain titles may not be available for download based on place of residence.
Ah-Ha! This just totally reminded me that my Z-22 Palm Pilot has E-Reader! I had forgotten all about it! The Z-22 is the bottom of the line, $100, palm pilot that I got for keeping all those kids appointments and various contact info straight. So it to is a good alternative for someone who wants to try it on the cheap rather than buying one of the big name brands. I got online yesterday and bought a couple of eBooks from the Palm Store, although I believe one of the other vendors you mentioned may be compatible. The majority at Palm cost the same as a paperback (7.99) or hardback (26.99 for new titles) but like you mentioned in your article, they will no longer take up space in each one of my moves (we are on back to back overseas tours)! You ROCK!
Is it easy to download books on the Kindle in Okinawa. We are moving to Okinawa this summer. I currently have a Kindle and am thinking about buying my middle schooler one, but have been hesitating since I do not know how it is going to work in Okinawa.
We just bought a Kindle here (had to have it shipped stateside and then sent here). No problem ordering books or using any of the features in Okinawa or during any travels so far. I think the only problem you may run into is if you use it for subscriptions or file downloads, they are additional fees. Books however are still free over the 3g or wireless.