as a big reader i have been thinking about getting an e reader/tablet but don't want to spend a fortune on a kindle fire if it doesn't suit me.
there are loads of these touchscreen tablet/readers on ebay but i'm not sure which are any good so was wondering if anyone had bought a mid range one they could recommend

many thanks

As always when this issue comes up I'll ask the question - do you live within the Leeds Council boundary and if so can you or do you have a Leeds Libraries card ?

If the answer is yes then your decision may be swayed towards buying a reader with ePub compatibility, I've read hundreds of books on my eReader now and haven't paid for one of them.

To answer the main point of your question though, the issue of whether or not a tablet pc can act as efficiently as an eReader for the sole purpose of reading ebooks - its debatable, the whole point of eReaders when they were first launched was the "paper-like" reading surface and its minimal battery use due to not having a back-lit screen, the argument being that this was much less tiring on the eyes and more like reading the page of a real book than reading from a computer screen.

Will a tablet offer you that, I don't know the answer and I'm intruiged.

There is a sub £70 Kindle around, buy that.

True. Do not confuse a tablet such as the Kindle Fire or Ipad with an E-Reader such as a Kindle or Nook. They are entirely different products.

If you want to buy stuff, get an Amazon Kindle (any that isn't really a tablet) and if you want to use the library get something that uses e-pub format.

Yep, I've got that. If all you're going to do is read on it then that fits the bill. I have the Amazon app on my tablet but I rarely ever read on it, they're just too heavy and cumbersome.

My local council don't do ebook libary lending but if they did then Mr. Chicken's advice would be worth following. Loads of free books on Amazon now though.

This

My wife has one and it's fantastic. Before I bought it I looked on Amazon and Waterstones to see if the books she reads we're available. Waterstones fell short so it had to be a kindle. Battery life is amazing too.

Thanks for the advice.kindle it is

Anyone got a Nexus7 and what are they like for reading from? eyes wise

All tablets are pretty much the same, the backlight gets you in the end, you can turn down the brightness to give yourself some relief but it isn't the same as a proper ereader.

cheers

Stick with proper books made out of paper.

Long Live Ned Ludd

Long Live Rebecca

You can do both you know ?

The only issue I've had is in bright sunlight with the Nexus - I literally couldn't see the screen, no matter how bright it was. Inside it's fine - I turn the brightness all the way down though and also do the same in the Kindle App. I find I can read about the same as I would with either a book, or a Kindle in that regard.

I've had loads of Kindles (about 5), but travelling around a lot and shoving them in bags, holds etc etc doesn't bode well for the little chap.

In surveys the number of people that have claimed to have ever read an eBook has stayed about the same for two years now. It will slowly creep up, but all the early adopters have already adopted and books aren't going anywhere.

I have a Kindle Fire, bought for me as a gift.
So far, I have bought only one eBook for it, which is badly written (not the fault of the Kindle, obviously) and really badly punctuated.
Are eBooks re- typeset abroad or something ... or is my first experience just a badly punctuated book?

My next task with it is to switch off the truly irritating predictive text with whose help this post has just taken twice as long as if I' d used a laptop.

I got a Kindle (£70 model) for Christmas and absolutely love it. I was also given a Kindle gift card to along with it so I've not had to spend a penny yet. There are a number of books that are free to download which is fantastic. Most of the new releases are Kindle-ready but there are some books that haven't been uploaded yet.

I would highly recommend purchasing a Kindle for reading. Not tried out any of their tablet range.

One problem that you'll find with all ereaders is page formatting if the compiler of the ebook hasn't bothered to check, especially on PDF files, ePub seem to be a lot better in this respect.

I'm not much of a reader myself so take my advice with a pinch of salt, but I had the entry level Kobo, Kindle and Nook in my house over Christmas. The Nook and Kindle were very similar to each other but the Kobo was buggy, slow and felt cheaply made.