Kindle - bear with me

Yea the ability to change the FONT SIZE makes a huge difference. I've found if you get it the right size, you can place the reader at a nice distance and read it comfortably. [like on the tray in an airplane , without holding it up in your hand].

So id' say based on that it's better than a book, because books don't have consistent fonts and usually the fonts are SMALLER than what you can do on the kindle [as in so small you need to hold the book up in you face].

As for sunlight, i haven't read in direct sunlight, but i've read in all kinds of lighting without any major issues (where i can't properly see my cellphone's screen)

The only "issues" i've had in regards with lighting was:

1. If there's light coming from an angle and shines directly onto the screen there will be glare [just like with any other shiny surface] .
2. If it's dark, you WILL need a light of your own , so it's a good idea to invest in one of those small booklights if you want to read in places which is not naturally well lit.
 
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In fact this points up the very marked difference between reading a proper eReader (using eInk) rather than the traditional backlit LCD screen, like a tablet or netbook.

With a Kindle, for example, the brighter the ambient (i.e. external) light, the clearer the display and the text. With a backlit LCD, the brighter the ambient light the more difficult it is to read the screen, as we all know from trying to see our cellphone screens in bright outdoors. So to a certain extent whether you normally read in good ambient light, or under the blankets at night, may influence your decision to buy a Kindle or an iPad!
 
I've been doing a bit of reading on e-book readers since I'm planning to get my mum one for her birthday.
The Kindle 3 display uses E-Ink Pearl which has much better contrast and quicker page load times than regular E-Ink.
You can read more here: http://www.slashgear.com/e-ink-pearl-display-outed-50-contrast-improvement-0192565/

With regards to epub, Kindle doesn't support this format. As mentioned, you can use Calibre to convert your epub's to mobi but I wouldn't try doing all 4000 at once.
In my experience, with average sized novels, Calibre took roughly 1 - 2 minutes to convert one book so all 4000 at once probably isn't the wisest option.
There are some known issues converting to mobi for Kindle - you can check it out here: http://www.amazon.co.uk/tag/kindle/forum?cdSort=newest&cdThread=Tx2T7NS5UDIH7F3

It's a matter of personal preference but I prefer the Sony Readers though... Downside is it's quite a bit more pricey (around $250)
The newer PRS-650 also have E-Ink Pearl displays. Apart from the fact that I think they look a lot more sleek, they can handle pretty much any format you throw at it. Plus you can buy books from a lot more stores than the Kindle (and I generally find Amazon to be marginally more expensive than other stores. Granted, it's a about 50 US cents here or there, but if you buy a lot of books, it adds up)

If you're after WIFI & 3G then the Kindle is the better option.
If prefer flexibility, the Sony is better. A mate of mine has the slightly older PRS-600 and I was very impressed with how well it managed the different formats.

You can see a whole list of pro's & cons between the two here: http://blog.the-ebook-reader.com/2010/10/02/kindle-3-vs-sony-prs-650-with-video-review/

For the most part though, I don't think the Kindle is a bad option. For someone like my mum who regularly got thrown off by the Office paperclip assistant, I'd definitely opt for a Kindle.
For someone like me though, Sony FTW
 
Everyone that's thinking of getting one, stop procrastinating and get one immediately, it really is that good.
There's nothing I can say that hasn't been mentioned already by the previous posters, but I can add that initially I was a bit hesistant, but 3 days after placing the order I was very happy with my purchase. In fact the more it's used, the more it's liked.
If you like to read, you will like the kindle.
 
In fact people are constantly discovering new ways to use the Kindle. Here are a couple you might not be aware of:

1) Someone who constantly has to deliver speeches at conferences no longer messes with paper notes: he puts it all on the Kindle which is slim and convenient to use during a speech, and he can increase or decrease the font size depending on how much ambient light there is, for easy reading.

2) It's little known that the Kindle can be an excellent MP3 player with its own very reasonable speakers. If you listen a lot to downloaded podcasts, as I do, dump them into the Kindle's 'Audiobooks' folder and the device will then treat them like an audiobook -- which means you can pause a podcast, even for days or weeks, and it will pick up where it left off. The device's volume and clarity are excellent for podcasts, though for music you may want to plug in a set of phones.
 
Do a search for Apad/Epad. Not quite the same thing ,but I got one over the kindle.
 
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