There’s no denying the fact that eBooks have become immensely popular over the last few years, and while they’re nowhere near close enough to matching dead tree books in terms of popularity (and probably never will be), their market share is growing each year thanks to the push by various companies with interest in the area, most specifically Amazon. Nowadays even the most basic phones and tablets you can buy can read ePubs and Mobis with the right software installed on them, which has led to more people than ever before giving electronic books a try. But what’s the best way to read them? Hell, is there even such a thing as a best way to do that?
Honestly, the title of this article is a bit deceiving, as I have absolutely no idea what the best eBook reader is, objectively speaking. I haven’t tested them all, and there’s just so many of them! Amazon made a bajillion versions of their Kindle, and then there’s also the Nook and whatever the hell the Kobo is, not to mention the various Android and Apple tablets which also support Kindle and Nook apps, and then there’s also reading on a PC… You know what, on second thought, screw reading on a PC. Nobody needs that hassle.
While I can’t really give you an objective opinion on what the best e-reader on the market is (for all I know, the Kobo might be the greatest thing since sliced bread), I can give you my own, personal experience from my research and explain how I reached my own choice. First and foremost, I’d strongly suggest that you do NOT buy any kind of device with a backlight with the express purpose of using it as an e-reader. That means iPads, tablets or some Kindle versions (such as Kindle Fire) are out of the running. There should be absolutely nothing stopping you from buying one such device anyway (for example, I own an iPad for reading comic books), but trust me, reading on anything with a backlight for more than 15-20 minutes at a time sucks badly.
So now the big question is – Kindle, Nook or Kobo? The reason why I stayed away from the Kobo is because I’d never heard of it, and no one I knew had one, and since pack mentality is strong in me when it comes to things I don’t fully understand, I decided to try my chances elsewhere. As for the Nook, after some research I ultimately chose not to pursue that either, for several reasons. First and foremost, their library of available books is a lot more limited when compared to that of the Kindle, and second of all, I’ve read about some shady practices where certain books people have bought on Nook have suddenly become unavailable. At the end of the day, I decided that with the biggest book library, a wide selection of hardware models and native support for Audible, the Kindle is the way to go.
Pretty much any Kindle that doesn’t have an intrusive backlight is perfect. I own a Kindle 3, which has been so amazing that I haven’t even thought about upgrading, but since that one’s no longer being manufactured I would have to recommend the Kindle Voyage, which pretty much the best that the Kindle brand has to offer right now in terms of basic e-readers.