One thing that I want to do for myself is to stop this train of thought where the things that I like are social stigmas that I shouldn't be liking (therefore I have to either hide it by not talking about it, or create a different online identity where I can freely express myself without 'tarnishing' my RL persona). I guess that's how I felt with all of my blogs: I would have a different tumblr for a different purpose (inspiration, drawings, and fangirly things) because I wanted to keep it separate but they are all me, and I'm not trying to convert people, so who cares, really.
Anyways, this is not really a rant, just talking about ereaders. :)
I've been reading technology articles about how the ereader market is 'dying' or at least it is slowing down. For the most part, I think this is true. I know that for me, having an ereader is really worth it, because I like reading books! Reading is 99% what I do when I am not drawing, however, I don't really read 'good' literature, haha, I read romance/fanfiction/etc these leisure reads (and I read both m/f and m/m stories). So it makes sense to just buy (or download if it's a fanwork) the ebook version of a harlequin romance novel and then you can read it on your ereader in public and be discreet about it! No more Fabio gracing the cover of your novel.
BUT, I still prefer buying the physical copy of books. If I were to read Life of Pi or the Hunger Games or Harry Potter, I would want the physical copy. Also, it's not embarrassing at all to read those books in public, because they have really nicely designed covers. Even Twilight has a very nice minimalist cover. There are m/m themed novels that I have physical copies of as well, because their covers are really nice: Captive Prince, The Song of Achilles, The Persian Boy, At Swim, Two Boys.
This is the same with colorful magazines, beautiful books, photobooks, etc. If it's something inspiring then OF COURSE I want the physical version!
Back to ereaders: I have the B&N Nook SimpleTouch. It uses eink (longer battery life than the ereaders that have LCD displays), and its primary function is to read ebooks. It's not really for magazines (which I don't read eversions of), or internet browsing, or playing games. I like eink because it's really easy to read with daylight and you aren't straining your eyes so much with the screen.
And like I said, I buy physical copies of books I like for my permanent 'collection', so most of my ebook collection is actually Harlequin-esque cheapies (or Mills and Boon if you're British), or fanfiction on the internet which is free. I'm actually kind of a beast about finding 'good' free reads (not the ones offered on the B&N or Amazon websites!!) because a lot of good writers write fanfiction. My Calibre library currently has 1200+ .epub files in it, and I would say that only 100 of them are the reads that I bought (everything else being legitimately free).
For ebooks I also try to buy directly from the publisher when possible so that I'm not really "locked" into a certain file type... so really, even though I have an Barnes and Noble ereader, I have yet to actually purchase an ebook from their store. So I'm not actually helping with their market...
Then you look at the Nook Color tablet or the Kindle Fire (the ones with the LCD screens)... and might wonder why you would get an ereader tablet when you could just get a regular Android tablet or an iPad, and they would essentially have apps you could install to read your ebooks!
Another thing about ereaders and tablets is that ereaders came out before the tablet market came out (a couple of years I believe?). Buying an ereader should mean that you want to read ebooks, but people were buying ereaders for internet capabilities and etc, and therefore what they really wanted was a tablet.
Reading is an activity where I can curl up with a book and get away from the internet, so having an ereader where the internet is just a button a way is definitely not the point of owning an ereader. These days, most people have internet on their phone anyways, so if you really want an ereader, I would shy away from the fancier types and just go with the basics. Is the basic too limiting for what you need? Then you probably don't need an ereader!
tl;dr: some reasons buying an e-Ink ereader might be for you:
+ You want to have an elibrary rather than a physical library (highly doubt this as most dedicated readers also love physical copies)
+ You are addicted to guilty pleasure reads like romance novels and don't want to be caught reading the physical version in public
+ You like to travel, and an ereader is a great and efficient way to load lots of books to read
+ e-Ink is fantastic for reading in sunlight! It's a reason to go outside. You can be solitary and disconnected from the internet and read at your own leisure (the internet isn't an easy swipe away and you can let yourself relax & read). You can read LCD screens outside too, but on e-Ink, the sunlight could be directly on your screen and it looks like you are reading on paper!
+ You just plain love reading and are a hardcore 10hours+ a read type of person (this is me), seriously, e-Ink is so much better!
You might want to invest in an LCD tablet (whether nook or kindle or samsung or apple) or etc you:
+ Want to browse the internet/check your email
+ Play games such as sudoku, crossword puzzles, etc
+ Want to watch movies on it
+ Reading in the dark (you could read in the dark with a tablet or on your computer screen, you don't need an LCD ereader for that)
+ Listening to music
+ Any other function that isn't primarily about reading books (general purpose uses)
I think ereaders are just becoming more of a 'niche market' item.
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