Do you own an e-reader? And then I mean an e-ink device solely created and bought for reading e-books? Not a phone or an iPad or Samsung or other tablet?
I do. I have two of them.
Why would a person have two e-readers?
I have always like gadgets, and when Sony came out with their first series of e-readers, I wanted one. The first one I got was the Sony PRS-505. That was 2008.
It was quite a large thing, heavy for modern standards, and small on everything else: memory (190MB), time the battery would run (8 to 12 hours), no back-light, no touch-screen. But I could read books on it, and that I did. Lots of them, wherever I could find them. Which, in those days, was hard enough.
I sold the PRS-505 to a friend, whose wife really wanted a device with buttons and I moved on to the Sony PRS-350, a small thing with wifi and touch-screen!
Kindle knocking
But as things go, I needed something new at one point, and I had heard so much about Amazon Kindle that, in 2015, I ordered one, and sold the PRS-350. The Kindle is really a very nice device. It’s clear that Amazon knows what people want, and they deliver on the experience. It’s served me well for a lot of reading and it’s still going strong. It’s nice to see that modern equipment isn’t all made to die in 2 years, forcing you to buy something new.
Kobo Aura 2
Little over a year ago I decided to buy another e-reader. Since Sony had dropped out of the e-reader game, I opted for a Kobo. A dear friend of mine has one and she loves it to bits. I was pleased to find that the Kobo is equal to the ease of use and quality of build to the Kindle. I love good stuff when I pay good money for it.
So why did I buy the Kobo if the Kindle is such a good e-reader and still going strong?
Formats, baby. It’s all about formats.
As I said at the very top, I’ve been e-reading since 2008. In those days you would buy and download the book-files and transfer them to the e-reader with a cable. Yes, I’m that old. Since the first device was a Sony (Kindle was unheard of mostly in Europe, it was mainly an American affair), I bought e-pub book. Sony, Kobo, B&N Nook and many other devices use that e-pub format. The Kindle has its own proprietary format called MOBI-Pocket which evolved into AZW3 and KF8. That only runs on the Kindle device (and yes, on the Kindle app on your phone, tablet, etc., but this is about e-reader devices, remember? 
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Since I have lots of e-pub files still stored and I want to read those again, I could choose to read them on my phone (plenty of good Android e-reader apps about), buy a tablet and use a similar app, or get an e-pub e-reader.
With the benefit of a smooth display and insanely long battery times, and also a very nice, even, soft back-light, I decided to get an e-reader. The aforementioned Kobo. And my old e-pub files work great on that!
Happy reading, everyone, regardless of your preferred medium.
