The Everyday Minimalist | Living with less, but only the best

I would like to admit publicly that I caved, and bought a Sony E-Book Reader with a 6″ screen for around $283 taxes included.

Then I used it for a day, and returned it.

I didn’t hate it. I LOVED IT!

The refresh rate is so fast, the e-ink technology is surprisingly paper-like, and it has much more than I could have hoped for in a reader.

I could have gone with other lesser-known brand names as well, but finding them in Canada to try out in person and buy is a pain in the butt.

But I forgot one super important detail:

I also love to read graphic novels.

I am talking Lone Wolf & Cub, Usagi Yojimbo, … you know, comic books for adults!

I was hoping so hard it would all fit onto the 6″ screen, but alas, Sony hates PDF files and the zooming in on every PDF page killed my enthusiasm for the device.

I even tried it in image format, and no luck. I simply need a bigger screen.

I do not want to buy two devices — one for novels and the other for graphic novels. That is just silliness.

My new set of criterion for a future e-book reader purchase:

Apologies for the awful bastardization of the English language to follow — “don’t-cares” is not proper English

Willing to pay up to $400 before taxes (not planning on buying a ton of books as a result)

Must-haves:

9.7″ screen — so I can read graphic novels comfortably without squinting or zooming
Long battery life — more than 10 hours, Apple iPad I am looking at you!
Ability to put an SD card in — PDFs are memory hogs
Must be simple to drop in my files & use — folders would be ideal
Able to bookmark pages
Touchscreen — I am not a fan of buttons for e-book readers
Dictionary for words I don’t know
Must read PDFs.. everything else can be converted in some way or another.

Nice-to-haves:

Not too heavy, but I can deal with the weight as long as it isn’t like an iPad
Slim-ish (too slim and it cramps your hand)
Comes in different colours? In red or blue would be nice.
Can read books in e-ink colour? Probably asking too much now, watch them never come out with this product…

Don’t-cares:

Wireless — I have laptops for this. Just keep it simple. I don’t need to buy books instantly.
Note-taking and whatever else abilities
Able to play music — WTF?
Anything else that a normal book reading experience would not be able to cover

The only e-book readers on the market that are big enough, but have major flaws:

Kindle DX (Doesn’t come with an option for SD card memory upgrading)
iRex DR1000 (PERFECT…. but costs $1000 or something nuts like that? WTF?)
Apple iPad (HATE. $549 kills it for me; not e-ink technology; too heavy to hold for long; shorter-than-expected battery life… the list goes on)

I’m thinking in about 5 years, I’ll finally be able to find something.

*waits patiently, hoping someone out there will read this post & develop a graphic novel (manga)-friendly e-book reader*

About everydayminimalist

I'm a 20-something year old girl who lived out of a single suitcase in 2007, and now I'm living with less, but only with the best. You don't have to get rid of everything to become a minimalist! Minimalism can help simplify and organize your life, career, & physical surroundings. You can read more about me as a minimalist. Or come and visit my other blog Fabulously Broke in the City where I got out of $60,000 of debt in 18 months, earning $65,000 gross/year.

jonathan

Although the Kindle DX lacks an expansion slot for memory cards, it is a very nice e-reader. I use mine primarily for standard books and studying Japanese via manga (I know it’s cliché). Even if you leave wireless on, you can read for days; however, I leave mine off.

The size of usable internal storage is 3.34 GB and file transfer is easy: after connecting your Kindle via mini-USB to USB, you can copy and paste files into folders on the Kindle (documents folder for books and PDFs, pictures folder for cbz/image files).

It has your aforementioned bookmarking prerequisite for books, but unfortunately it is not touchscreen. I sympathize with you on that one. The built-in dictionary works fine with standard .mobi format books (and I learned quite a few new cooking terms this way!) And let’s not forget that PDFs work out of the box.

My only criticism is ghosting on image files with white backgrounds, easily remedied on a page-basis with a refresh.

If you have questions about the Kindle DX or want more pictures demonstrating functionality, let me know.

(Image: quickly taken screenshot demonstrating standard orientation manga/graphic novel capability)
TWL

Forgot to mention–black and white Kindle (easiest on eyes) with touchscreen was $99. The figures in my books come out fine, not sure about comics though.
TWL

I just got my Kindle about 2 weeks ago and I cannot put it down. I love it!!
Susanna

Have you looked at some of the new tablet computers? No, they’re not technically e-readers, but something like the Asus Transformer Prime could handle your graphic novels beautifully. My daughter loves hers, uses it constantly (she’s a college student) and gets a day of battery life with intense use. Plus you get the computing capabilities.

As to the color e-ink, don’t hold your breath.
I’m a regular book reader, so I have a Kindle Touch (e-ink) and love it. It’s a problem with PDFs, though. Some convert nicely and some. . . well, enough about that.

As to replacing physical books with digital, I’ve just gotten rid of hundreds of physical books. Only kept a few boxes of out-of-print books that are unlikely to ever come out in a digital version. I did it so I could move to another country.
Carebear Of Doom

I just looked it up, and at roughly $7.99 a piece, it would cost almost as much as some e-readers to acquire my entire Anne Rice collection, which consists of 18 books. Not to mention, I have to gripe that digital copies should NOT be the same price as physical books! I’m getting a file, that should be cheaper. What’s the benefit, if it’s the same price?
Carebear Of Doom

My thought with e-readers is this. If I am not going to be reading actual books, then I want to be able to replace my entire collection in digital format so that I can sell/donate my REAL books and have less I need to move and keep in storage. Books get heavy and take up space. However, I’m sure it would cost a LOT to replace my whole collection. I’d also probably keep a few series, or books that I wanted to display.
Sailrox

They’ve now dropped the price of the iPad 2 to 419 cdn. Does that start making the 549 look less painful?
Bob

Look at a Toshiba Thrive. Full size SD slot plus user replaceable battery.
Jmhva

Sounds like you need a NOOK
iss

Recently I heard about color JetBook – http://www.jetbookk12.com/jetbookcolor/ – but I didn’t do any research so you have to check yourself if it fits your needs. It has big, high-res color display, but it’s currently $500.

Re-visiting an E-Book Reader Decision

I didn’t hate it. I LOVED IT!

I also love to read graphic novels.

My new set of criterion for a future e-book reader purchase:

Apologies for the awful bastardization of the English language to follow — “don’t-cares” is not proper English

Must-haves:

Nice-to-haves:

Don’t-cares:

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