Sony Reader vs. Laser Printer vs. Ink Jet Printer

Buy a laser printer that will print double sided automatically and multiple pages per sheet. My Laser printer prints up to 8 pages per sheet (4 each side), making a 100+ page document fit on 13 pieces of paper. To my eye, though the print is tiny, it's more legible than any electronic device. This is very handy for carrying around lengthy documents. In addition, after reading the book "http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0609810057/metafilter-20/ref=nosim/" (a book about the brain), I'm a firm believer in the theory that the brain is more receptive to words read off a light-reflecting surface than a light-generating one.

Re: "renting", have you tried Fry's?

The Sony Reader is neat, but it's definitely a first-generation device. The interface is a little clumsy, and the refresh rate is very slow. $350 buys a lot of dead trees, and if you wait a year or so, the second-gen devices will probably be out. If general technology trends are any indication the next generation of ebook readers will be better, cheaper, and more compatible.

Not quite answering your question, but I read ebooks on a Sony Clio PDA, many from alt-binaries but also from Gutenberg, Baen, and other ebook providers (converted to Plucker or Palm format for preference). The Clio works excellently for me, and is much more portable than the Reader. I don't know of a good Palm-OS PDF viewer though. The gossip I've read gives the Sony Reader low marks for user interface / usability.

I'm a firm believer in the theory that the brain is more receptive to words read off a light-reflecting surface than a light-generating one. The Sony Reader uses http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electronic_paper, so it is a light-reflecting surface. Anyway, I'd suggest waiting for the second generation of book readers. If you really want one now, though, you might consider the http://www.jinke.com.cn/compagesql/English/embedpro/prodetail.asp?id=15. This looks better to me than the Sony, because it has wider support for different non-DRM formats and a slightly lower price. That said, I think that none of these are going to be worth the price until a year or two from now, once the interface has been smoothed out.

I read books (generally downloaded from #bookz on Undernet) and magazines on my mobile phone. I own a Nokia 7610 (with Symbian as an operating system). The software I use for reading books is http://www.airpedia.com/reader/. It's a great reading software, but it can only read .txt and .apd files (no PDFs, I'm afraid). Still, if you own a phone with Symbian, Airpedia is way cheaper than shelling out 350$ for a Sony Reader.

Two things: * Sony can't be trusted. I would expect them to gradually reduce the features in their new ebook until it doesn't do what you want. I know some people will say "just don't install the upgrades", but Sony has shown that it's willing to do fairly underhand things to get crippling upgrades onto devices, ie; the PSP. * The cool thing about printing out books is that you can hand them to other people, or shed them as you travel.

I print quite a bit, so I can read whilst on the bus, or while I'm at lunch. I purchased a used laser printer for under $40, buy toner from eBay for ~$30 a cartridge, and boxes of paper for $30 at the office supply store. Which takes forever to use. (I keep some nicer, brighter stuff for the occasional resume or what have you.) Do NOT use your inkjet. It costs a fortune, even with 3rd party carts, and the ink smears with even a drop of coffee, which usually happens before I even leave the house. (on preview: what krisjohn said about disposing or sharing said printed documents.)

Buy a laser printer that will print double sided automatically and multiple pages per sheet. My Laser printer prints up to 8 pages per sheet (4 each side), making a 100+ page document fit on 13 pieces of paper. Printer recommendations?