Wyndham Wisdom

Turning a New Page

By Adam Baer

Tired of lugging books on vacation? These sleek and slim e-readers store multiple volumes, letting you leave the library at home

The e-Lit Future: The next few years look bright for electronic readers. A number of programs already exist for many smartphones. The Sony Reader Daily Edition ($400), which can download content on the go as the Kindle does, should be available by December. A color-screen product from Fujitsu--now available only in Japan--could hit our shores by year's end. Barnes & Noble's new e-bookstore plans to release a compatible e-reader from Plastic Logic in early 2010. And a full-color iRex iLiad is slated for 2011.

With the imminent arrival of an affordable Mac tablet computer, Apple seems interested in joining the fray--and crushing these competitors, given the success of its iTunes e-store. Our suggestion? Start getting comfortable with reading books on-screen. One day soon, it could be both the most affordable and most portable way to take along a stack of novels and guidebooks on your travels.

Sony Reader Touch Edition
500,000 free titles
This iPod-esque Sony Reader has a 6" touchscreen (swipe with your finger or write with a stylus) and holds 350 books. (You can buy memory cards to beef up capacity.) It comes
in cool colors (black, silver, red) and includes the formidable Oxford English Dictionary. The Sony eBook Store offers more than a million titles; a Google partnership brings in a half-million public titles for free. But you do need a computer to download a book. (sony.com; $300)

Amazon Kindle 2
Can hold 1,500 Books
The beloved update to Amazon's first device is skinnier and has a 6˝ screen. Sprint's fast 3G network lets you download books, magazines and newspapers wirelessly anywhere in the U.S. You can also hear books read aloud, browse the Web and transfer PDFs. However, Kindle purchases can't be read on most other devices. (amazon.com; $299)

Foxit eSlick
0.4" thick
Though extremely light and slim, this new e-reader has the standard 6˝ screen; its two-gig memory card (included) holds 500 books. You can upgrade to a four-gig memory card to double capacity. It's great for PDFs and even has an MP3 player. The big drawback? Downloads require you to connect to a computer. (foxitsoftware.com; $260)