Weighing in as a school librarian. B & N seem to be in th lead as far as ring ready for textbook ebooks. If you want color for magazines & pictures in books (think nonfiction) the Nook or iPad are the front runners. Also public libraries Have more & more ebooks for checkout and the kindle is the only eReader that does not work with the library system. I'm not saying the Kindle isn't a good product it is very good at what it does. But as others have said you need to determine what features you must have then match that list with the eReader that best performs those requirements. Customer service is important too.