The e-reader revolution is taking hold.  Last week my colleague Perpetua pleasantly surprised everyone at the office treating us to a Sony e-reader.

It's a lovely Easter gift, and unexpected. Even more unexpected since I had already bought one (as gift to self), which I then sold to another colleague to give to his partner as a birthday gift. One has to be practical..

I thought the gift was a thoughtful "lets-put-our-ideas-into-practice" approach, especially as we are campaigning for a paperless future.

I think they are still a bit on the expensive side (£224 at Waterstone's and £190 through Carbonica) and they must become much cheaper for the mass market.

The Sony e-reader is quite simple to use. To get started, you need to install the eBook Library software (from the disc accompanying the device), which manages the eBook Library between the computer and the e-reader. Then you can install Adobe Digital Editions (from the Adobe site) and you're ready to fish for ebooks. I cannot think of any downside to the device itself, but it is disappointing that there is a general lack of availability of e-books out there, so sourcing the content is the challenge.

Sony recommends the Waterstone's website to download e-books but you will see it's very disappointing and difficult to navigate. Don't even bother. Having the Adobe Digital Editions allows you to download from other sites and read the e-books in a format compatible with the Sony e-reader.

I highly recommend www.ebooks.com and www.booksonboard.com. The choice there is very good, plus it will only get better, with increasing demand (I am sure this will become very big soon). Ebooks.com has also its own viewer called "eb20", a web-based e-book reader application (which you don't need to install) that enables you to flick through a preview of the book through a pop-up window on your computer screen and also read it entirely after purchase, so this gives you versatility to read the e-book on both your computer and the e-reader.

You should also visit www.mobileread.net and download Calibre, which enables the reader to get RSS feeds from sites like BBC News, The Guardian, The New York Times, etc.

Well, that's my limited experience so far. I'm quite enjoying it!

Brunella