I am what you might call an ebook veteran. I have been reading ebooks on some kind of mobile device since eReader first hit the web as Peanut Press. Back then my mobile companion was a Pocket PC: first a color Casiopeia, then an iPAQ 1910, a Dell Axim X30 and finally an i-mate JAQ Pocket PC phone. Of course, my life changed when I drank the last sip of my big glass of Apple kool-aid and dumped the i-mate for the right kind of iDevice—an iPhone.

The Problem

After I started reading ebooks on my shiny new iPhone 3G, I noticed that the backlit screen was giving me horrible headaches after prolonged use. I’m an avid reader and I had gotten used to having a book on me at all times, just in case I got stuck somewhere with nothing to do. I have a fear of boredom and ebooks are the perfect solution. So when it became too painful to read on the backlit screen, I knew I had to make the move to an eInk screen. When I saw the first Sony ebook reader, I remembered being disappointed that eInk wasn’t backlit like an LCD, but suddenly that was the perfect solution.

The Contenders

I thought about getting the Kindle, but the designs of the original Kindle and the Kindle 2 just didn’t appeal to me. Another thing that bothered me about the Kindle platform, and to be honest continues to bother me, is the fact that it’s pretty DRM-heavy. Amazon books are a proprietary format; the rest of the industry seems to be moving as a whole towards ePub as the standard. The fact that I couldn’t borrow books from the new Overdrive service at my library was the real killer, as was the non-expandable memory. I hate DRM and I like having options.

I also considered a Sony, but the feature set just wasn’t where I wanted it to be at the time. I really liked that they support tons of ebook formats, expandable memory and library borrowing. But at the time, it just didn’t do it for me. The newer Sony Readers with the touch screens are looking pretty darn good though.

The Winner

Then the Barnes & Noble Nook was announced, and I was smitten. Expandable memory, check. Support for non-DRM files in multiple formats, check. Library borrowing, check. I loved the sleeker lines and the touchscreen in place of the seemingly useless keyboard at the bottom of the Kindle. It was an added bonus that it was offered by a major bookseller, which would allow family and friends to gift me with Barnes & Noble gift cards for easy ebook purchases. Sold! After some very large, very unsubtle hints (more like directives), my sweet husband pre-ordered me one for my Christmas gift. I squeaked in on that first pre-order day before they sold out and received it at the beginning of December. Shawn valued his safety more than he did making me wait until December 25, so I spent my Christmas break reading ebook after ebook at my in-laws’ beautiful lake house—without a single headache. It was love at first read.

One minor problem I have had with the Nook is its buttons. At the time of this post, I have a replacement Nook waiting for me at the office. My Nook has already been replaced once when I discovered a crack in one of the forward page buttons last year. The issue was handled impeccably by Barnes & Noble customer service; it was a known issue with the chassis of the original batch of Nooks, so they were quite familiar with the problem by the time it occurred for me. They simply shipped me a new Nook and requested that I ship my old one back once I received the replacement. There was no charge, no hassle, just a happy Nook customer.

I was assured at the time that they had changed the chassis design and the button crack would not be an issue with my replacement. So, I was quite perturbed to discover another button crack last week. It is a hairline crack in the left page forward button, barely visible to the naked eye, but after my first experience it’s something I check for quite regularly. The crack doesn’t even affect the button’s functionality, but I was concerned that it might get worse if left untended to. I emailed Barnes & Noble about the issue, gave them my information, and eventually called them to confirm some things. Again, they were super helpful and very willing to solve the issue—and I totally lucked out. When the gentleman processing my return was making notes on my file, he noticed that I had called on the very last day of my base warranty! This unfortunately means that my replacement Nook is not covered for any problems or issues by a Barnes & Noble warranty, but I may look into the possibility of a third-party warranty service such as Squaretrade just in case.

Even with the button issue, I am a happy e-reader and my enthusiasm for the product has sold more than one friend on buying their own. My friend DB (who runs the awesome Stephen Colbert site No Fact Zone) and her husband Dan each got one after my glowing recommendation. I’ve even hooked my best friend on the Nook—I bought her a factory refurbished unit as a combination Christmas and birthday gift this year!

The Nook is a mainstay in my bag for both travel and every day use. Yes, I could read books on my iPhone or iPad, but the headaches are not worth the device convergence to me. The eInk screen is just as easy on my eyes as paper, the battery life is great, and it is comfortable to hold and use. I have an ebook library numbering in the many hundreds, which I manage through Calibre. I love that I can check out books from my local public library’s Overdrive system and read them on my Nook. That helps curb my book buying habits a little bit, but not much! Barnes & Noble has great sales, plus I can buy ebooks from any online retailer that sells them in ePub format. I have also downloaded all my old ebook libraries from other vendors, broken the DRM and converted them to ePub so that I can enjoy them again.

At the end of the day, I’m never going to stop buying physical copies of books. I have a small handful of lifetime favorites in hardback, paperback, and now ebook format. I have shelves so crammed with books that there is literally no more space for me to store anything new (though that didn’t stop me from buying three books at Half Price on Tuesday). Someday I want to have my own study with floor to ceiling bookshelves full of volumes. But let’s face it—I might not be able to carry my entire physical library in my purse, but I can carry my entire ebook library with me at all times. For a book lover like me, that’s my idea of paradise. I love living in the future.

So, when I was planning my switch over to the iPhone, one of the first things I was concerned about was the availability of a good eBook reader.  I have tons of books in tons of different formats, and it was important to me that I would be able to read them on the iPhone without having to jump through a lot of hoops.

The app that caught my eye after the release of the app store was Stanza.  It promised support for almost every kind of eBook file one could imagine (txt, html, doc, lit, pdf, etc.) and retails for the low, low price of free.  It was the first app that I downloaded in anticipation of purchasing my iPhone…I wanted it ready to rock and roll when I brought my shiny new baby home!

Stanza has two components–the iPhone app, which lets you read books as well as download them OTA from various sources, and the desktop app, which lets you read books on your computer as well as share them over Wi-Fi for download to Stanza on the iPhone.  Right now the desktop app is in Beta and also free.

From the get-go, Stanza was great.  It reminded me a lot of my favorite eBook reader on the Windows Mobile platform, uBook.  I loaded the iPhone up with some books and have used it to read on an almost daily basis since getting my iPhone back in August.  It allows you to fully customize your reading experience with font size, colors, and more.  I prefer my reader to have a black background with white text, which is less hard on my eyes.

Recent updates to Stanza have been amazing.  Books now have cover art associated with them–if your book doesn’t have cover art, all you have to do is tap a few buttons and Stanza loads cover art for you directly from the Internet.  You can even choose from different covers if it brings up a selection.  The covers appear as small thumbnails next to the titles when the phone is in portrait mode, and in landscape mode you can browse your library in a Cover Flow-esque setup.

You can also now purchase and read anything from the eReader/Fictionwise catalog directly from Stanza.  I had some old books purchased from eReader that I hadn’t read, and I used Stanza to download them and put them into my book library.  This is a huge boon for me because I don’t like having multiple applications that serve the same function.  Now I don’t need eReader!  This also means that I’m no longer jealous of the Kindle owners who can buy a book from just about anywhere–now, so can I!

Random House also offered a selection of free eBooks this week, again directly accessed through Stanza on the iPhone.  I must confess, they all looked so good I downloaded every single one!  Who doesn’t love free?

Once Stanza is out of Beta, it will reportedly cost somewhere in the vicinity of $15 (I assume for the desktop application).  I personally can’t wait to give Lexcycle some of my hard earned cash, because they deserve it for writing such fantastic software.  Stanza may very well be my favorite iPhone app…it has a coveted spot on the front page!

For more information on Stanza, please visit http://www.lexcycle.com.