I finally broke down and bought an iPod Touch last night at Circuit City. By the way, the staff all carry Fujitsu 1620p’s on a strap to look up inventories, etc. they keep them mostly in slate mode. Thought that was interesting. I downloaded the eReader app from the app store and bought a couple of books. The reading experience on the touch is awesome. I love it! What took me so long? I also downloaded a rental movie from iTunes called Vantage Point. Great movie and it looks great on such a small screen. This is going to be such a great device for my plane travel. Thanks for the recomendation guys.

Question: I have decided to take the plunge into ebooks. I am comparing 3 sites. eReader, Mobipocket, and Deisel. I have to say that all 3 seem to be about the same in terms of the books they have available at least for the authors I’ve checked. Deisel is pretty good because of all the formats they offer. Is there one of these sites that really stands out for some reason? I’ve also noticed that some authors like Tom Clancy for example have no ebooks available on any of the sites. I wonder why that is since he is so popular. Thanks.

OK, maybe I need an iPod Touch. How long until Christmas?

JLC, if you have an iPod touch with the new 2.0 firmware you can use the AppStore, in which case you could download the eReader client app for free. Content would cost extra of course. You can do this right over WiFi with the Touch. I highly recommend signing up for the eReader newsletter if you go this route: they include a 10% coupon code in each one.

sorry I meant download to my tablet pc and synch to the ipod touch.

I am very intersted in this. I have to use a blackberry on Verizon because of work. Are there good options for that? I have looked at Mobipocket but it is kind of limited in the genre I like. (scifi). Only older books and incomplete series. If I got an ipod touch, would I be able to use eReader? I wouldn’t want to pay for the ATT connection so could I just download to my phone and synch the book to the touch? Sorry for all the quesions.

Hi JK–
Absolutely agree with you that having a book that’s with you, that you can start reading again without hunting for your place, and that doesn’t look like you’re bored and reading a book, is a huge deal. I take out my Palm and read while my wife is birdwatching, while I’m waiting for a late executive to start a meeting, and even while I’m in lines at the grocery store.

Rob Preece
Publisher, http://www.BooksForABuck.com

Oliver – before you shell out for an iPhone just for the reading you should see if your regular cell phone can do the job. If you have internet connectivity on your phone you can install books with a few clicks from mobile.booksinmyphone.com

They also support some other ways to install via a PC and nicer browsing of titles at http://www.booksinmyphone.com

I have been reading their stuff for ages and as James says you really cannot understand the convenience till you try it.

You have almost sold me on the iphone. I would love to have the ease of reading wherever and whenever without having to lug additional gear with me.

Maybe I should just give it a try, but I tend to like to read short pieces when I know I only have a few minutes to focus on it. So I fill my spare moments with catching up with email, RSS, newspaper articles.

Actually, I want to invest in a mobile device which is great for ebooks, especially PDF. Would you suggest iPhone, BlackBerry (probably Bold), or something else?

Agreed. I have read e-books with so many different readers it’s hard to keep up, but the iphone/ipod touch (so far) trumps them all! It has such an amazing, clear, backlit screen. With an app like Zachary Bedell’s “Bookshelf” (you need to get the latest update, it’s much improved btw)
the autoscrolling feature is great.

Not sure if Steve Jobs is even literate but e-books could be truly a sleeper, killer-app for the iphone.
I’m currently reading Margery Allingham’s tremendous “Campion” detective series. Great stuff!

I use iSilo with my Windows Mobile 6 device (VX6700). It works great, and I can create the books myself from any .doc or .html files. I saw that tor.com had the Battlestar Galactica book for free on their site – I turned it into an iSilo .pdb file in two minutes and uploaded it to my device.

However – I wish there was a way to get more free ebooks (especially recent ones) in the iSilo format (or .doc or .html – open to suggestions). I am DEFINITELY not paying $20 for an ebook, or even $10. There’s no paper, no shipping, no sales people. I’d say $5 is about right.

Lastly – I wish there was a good way to read PDFs on a mobile device (like my VX6700). I have the Secret History of Star Wars in .pdf and it looks terrible on my mobile device. Too much scrolling just to see anything.

JK, I agree…ebooks are great. I started reading ebooks back when I got my first Palm Pilot in 1996. In fact, that was one of the things that spurred my interest in creating MemoWare ( http://www.memoware.com ), which is still a great place to get ebooks in formats compatible with a lot of different devices.

ereader was a big reason I got an iPhone and it hasn’t let me down. Love it.