I have a nook from Barnes & Noble. And just love it.
You can take it to B&N and download and read for free. I can also borrow from the library, just like a regular book. Of course on the due back date it disappears.
But the Kindle has just dropped in price.
My daughter also made me a cover out of fleece. Pretty nifty.

My son wanted to get me one since I read a lot, but I refused. I want books I can hold, old ones I own and can re-read when i want to, nap in my chair with cat and book on my lap...and when I travel, I read my books and then trade them with my daughters before returning home. Then don't have electronic readers at all, just too busy with life.

I have the Nook. My husband bought it for me before a vacation, so that I wouldn't lug a bag of books. I especially like it for books that are too heavy to hold when reading in bed (like Pillars of the Earth,etc.)

I have a Kindle 2 and one reason I bought it was because it can increase the font size. I don't like to wear my rimless bifocals in bed when I read so I use a pair of single visions in an old frame. The prescription in them is from about 5 years ago so it was getting to the point where my arm was getting too short to hold the book to read it!
Heidi

from friends, I would advise a nonproprietary reader, since with kindle and I believe BN, they can withdraw ebooks that you buy for any reason and put on your device. it is more that you buy the right to the book, not the book itself.

I have the 2nd generation Kindle and I love it! My husband got it for my birthday, and he did research and decided on the kindle. I love to get samples of books and read MUCH more than i did when i purchased books. You can also get newspapers, magazines like reader's digest and games to play.

I have the Kindle and I love it! I read large print books and the books on here are a lot more reasonably priced than buying the actual book. At first I had "page turner's withdrawal" but quickly got over that. I got mine for Mother's Day last year. You can put it in your purse and take it everywhere you go and it takes up no space at all. You can order new books anywhere you may be and when you get through reading them, you can archive them and bring them back to your Kindle anytime you want to. Like I said, I love mine!

This may be a stupid question but I noticed there are two types of readers. One is Wi-Fi and the other is 3G and Wi-Fi. My question is can you download books using just the Wi-Fi from anywhere? I don't want to have to leave home to download a book.

I have vision problems.... and DH got me a Sony reader after his research. I love the textile feel of a real book.. but this si soo much handier.. I have so many books to choose from all the time and the big issue for me is.. I can enlarge the font to make it easier for my eyes to see it. .... I got the smaller size so I can just put it in my purse like a paperback book..... the big one would hav been ice.. but not as convient for me... There are lots of places on line to get older " books" free.. and the sony takes most ANY format... for many , it was mu understandign that some such as the kindle or the nook took ONLY the format from their stores.... I get lots of mine off ebay. My last purchase was 55 James Patterson books for under $10...

The Nook has greater access to free content. If you're the library type, Nook's for you.

If you're already a compulsive amazon shopper, the Kindle's for you.

If you have eye issues, stay away from the Ipad. It allegedly causes eyestrain. Maybe not such a big thing for healthy eyes, although they will notice it, but a likely deal killer for everyone else.