It's a book... It's a computer? Wait... The Battle of the E-book readers

Everyone is talking about them.  Today, everywhere you go I'm sure you have seen someone with a Nook, a Kindle, an Ipad or some sort of E-book reader.


An E-book reader is a mobile electronic device that is designed for reading digital books and magazines. Basically, instead of lugging heavy books around in your backpack you can upload books and read them on this device.

For almost a year and a half I have had the Barnes & Noble E-book reader called the NOOK. All I can say is that I really think this is a great device, and I would highly recommend it for other students who have learning disabilities. On the NOOK, I really like how you can enlarge the text, bookmark specific pages, and you can even annotate/highlight pages for your notes or look words up in the Merriam-Webster Dictionary that NOOK provides for you for free.

I use the NOOK mostly for pleasure reading, but more frequently I have been using it in a lot of my college classes. A lot of the books that my professors select are available on the NOOK. So, rather than paying for a textbook that is $21 at your local college bookstore, on the NOOK I can get the textbook for about $6-$7. Yeah for saving money!!!! In addition, I also love that I can check out books for free on my NOOK from my local library back home.

One positive thing I have seen with all the latest E-book readers is that they are getting a lot more students particularly children with disabilities who struggle in the area of reading, learn to enjoy reading a book. Many of the books for children that you can buy for the E-book reader are colorful, have the character read the story to you (the child) and incorporate reading games. Unfortunately, these features are not available for YA and  adult novels. Hopefully, in the future they will be added to the E-book reader so that children particular teens with disabilities can enjoy reading as well.

The only negative comment that I have for this device is that it does not have a text-to-speech function. Sometimes, if there is a particular passage in a book that I can't process in my head, I like to have the option to read it allowed. I hope eventually NOOK will consider adding this function.

Below I have listed SOME of the popular E-book readers that are on the market today. Check them out and try one out for yourself.

The Kindle

The Nook (My Favorite!!!)

The Kobo

The Ipad


Happy Reading!