eReaders Throughout the Years-Announcing a New Series

Growing collection of readers

I have a couple of thousand books on my shelves. They are double and triple stacked. The shelves are
bowing. It's really quite an addiction. Every book sale or giveaway I am tempted to add to my collection. Years of this behavior means that I am starting to run out of space. Not to mention the issue of being a fantasy fan. Carrying around thousand page tomes is no easy feat. That's where eReaders come into play.

I have had my fair share of readers. My very first I saved up for and got a Sony PRS 500 in 2006. I was in elementary school going into junior high and was beyond excited to have my first eReader where I could read whatever I wanted without having to ask to go to the store. Online shopping wasn't really a thing for me back then. I loaded that reader up with all things Charlaine Harris and binged on some Sookie Stackhouse books. Unfortunately within a couple of years the readers were discontinued, the ebook store was closed, and my trusty reader was very dead.

Next my mom surprised me over Christmas of 2011 with the just released Kindle Fire. Like the original, first generation Kindle Fire. Throughout my college years I used my Kindle Fire regularly and it does have a lot of pros. It's been nine years since it was gifted to me and I can still power it up and read on it. I like to use this if I'll be staying indoors or am reading a comic.

Sometimes I use the reader apps. When I was in classes I usually had my laptop or iPad with me for taking notes and this is what I would read on when waiting for lectures to start. I had the Kindle App with all of my books loaded onto it as well as the Kobo app since the Sony store I had originally used was ported over to Kobo. I even had a few iBooks on my phone and iPad. This worked fairly well but wasn't optimal.

2017 I got my fanciest eReader update in the second generation Kindle Oasis. It was a weird shape, water proof, ergonomic. Fancy. I was really excited for this eReader and I still pick it up but within a few months I started to notice some bugs.

With the pros and cons weighed of the Oasis I felt guilty but I wanted to try the next level down feature wise in the Kindle family. I was very excited when I was gifted the Kindle Paperwhite in Twilight Blue in 2019. She is now my go to everyday reader.

With all of this experience in using eReaders and three of the more popular apps for years, I decided to write a series of posts about the pros and cons of each and overall why I find myself turning more and more towards using eReaders over picking up physical books.

Stay tuned for reviews of the Fire, Oasis, and Paperwhite as well as a look at the pros and cons of eReaders vs. just using an app on your smartphone or computer. Happy reading!