Reading on the go- Books vs. eReader's

I love books and since I travel a lot on the plane, they help pass the time.  Reading is challenging for me when I am not traveling because there are so many distractions, but sitting on a long flight, I can usually knock out 1-2 books per trip. 

I'm also a fan of hardback books, I like the size, the feel, the book jacket, how they look on my book shelf but what I don't like is lugging them around in my backpack or carry-on.  As a frequent traveler, you have to always ask "what's in your backpack"  (ever see "Up in the Air" with George Clooney?).  Well, I carry a lot of work related equipment, laptop, scanner, mouse, iphone, itouch, usually some work files and my books (one maybe two depending on the duration of the trip). 

When traveling, one can't help but notice the shinny new devices everyone is carrying with them, not phones or laptops but something in-between.  They have different names: Nook, Kindle, and of course Ipad.  People are reading books on them, they are light and thin, they have a back light and some do other things like display emails and other documents.

I started to consider if I was ready to make the switch from the hardback books I love to a new eReader?

Remember these.....

I used to enjoy looking at these too, they're called CD's and I had several hundred of them.  They had jackets with lyrics on them and maybe a few pictures of the band.  I don't take these on trips with me anymore, in fact, I haven't used one in years, instead I take one of these, my ipod/itouch.  This little device holds over 3000 songs, my iphone holds about 5000 songs.  That is equal to about 400-500 CD's, so I've learned that its easier to enjoy my entire music collection on one small device.

Now, here is what my bookshelf looks like.... The books do take up a lot of room and unlike the CD's, I seldom read the same book twice, except the Bible and perhaps William Buffet's biography.

So I finally broke down and purchased the iPad and downloaded my first book.  The Ipad also has a "book shelf" so I can have that warm fuzzy feeling I  get when I look at all my previously read books, but as you can see, next to my current bookshelf, it's considerably smaller.



When I compare the size of my typical book to my new iPad,  it is significantly smaller and not only holds one book but my entire collection of books, just like my itouch.

It  looks like a book when your reading it, even replaces my paperclip book mark with a red book marker.

So how do I like it?  I love it, I will say that it is not as easy to read outside due to the screen glare (The Kindle and Nook do better in sun) however; I was drawn to the additional features of the ipad and willing to compromise on glare.  I am also a little nervous about taking an iPad to the beach because I don't want to get sand in the little cracks (even we don't like that).  So for now, I will probably keep a hardback on hand for "beach reading" but the ipad is my go to device for all other reading (80% of the time).

I know this technology is not new to anyone but it is interesting how we've migrated old things into new technologies. 

Oh did I mention I can throw all my DVD's away now because they can also be stored on my iPad?