I saw a Sony Bookreader at an electronics store and I think that I may have changed my mind against getting a device for reading books. The thing was about the size of a paperback book and the text was clear and easy to read.

I will be checking the prices in the new year and if there is a price drop, I will pick one up.

I’ve been able to test three brands of bookreaders and they all seem about the same as far as readability goes.

These are:
ECTACTO eReader 5 inch screen $149 with rechargeable battery and $117 with AA cells.
Sony Bookreader 6 inch screen – $279.
Amazon Kindle $259. 6 Inch screen.

The Ectacto is a simple device that has software to show books. I have seen no-name versions for much cheaper if you want to import one from China. The connectivity is through a USB port or an SD card. You load it in the same way you’d load an MP3 player, you just copy to the device.

The Sony is just about the same as the Ectacto, except it costs more and has built in ability to download from Google Books.

The Kindle is a cell phone in a box and downloads using the cell network, but Amazon charges you for what you read. I see that they claim there are free books, but I am not sure how you’d load a book through USB. Kindle is cheaper than the Sony because Amazon will make the difference back quickly as soon as you start loading up on books.

My own preference would be a device with a battery chargeable through the USB port, but one that has WiFi so I can load off my home network.

I see that you can get text version through torrents of almost any book, so I will be seriously watching the prices on these things.