The iPad as an e-reader

I love the ability to make successful recommendations.  When I love a product or a service or an idea, I can’t wait to share it with my friends, family and colleagues.  And when that recommendation is equally well liked and received, then I feel great.  Surely I can’t be alone in that, right? 

Where am I going with all this?  Well, I am an avid reader, when I say avid, I mean that in actual definition of the word – I have read pretty much every day of my life since I was seven.  A day that goes without reading a book is a sad, sad day for me.  I read at least two to three books a week, sometimes more.  I am also the queen (self-proclaimed) of reading multi-tasking.  Some examples - while eating (easy), while blow drying my hair (a little harder but easy with practice) and while watching TV (harder but still possible).  My family has many stories of the unsuccessful attempts I have made over the years to combine reading with other activities but that should be a different post, I think.

So I thought that I would never convert from the comfort of the paper in hand to an e-reader.  But I have converted and done it wholeheartedly.  I received a Kindle for Christmas and fell in love with it.  I have shared it with dozens of people (even numerous strangers who have asked after it out in public).  I rave about it because it turned out to be perfect for me.  See… there I go again, recommending.  Can’t help it.

Being a fan of Apple and being married to an Apple fanatic, I was looking forward to the iPad.  I thought to myself, “Wow, will this be even better than the Kindle and my iPod Touch combined?”  I’m sorry to say but from all I have seen, I just can’t feel the love on this one.  This from a woman who has a Kindle, an iPod, an iPod Touch and a Flip in my purse at all times.  I’d have an iPhone too if I didn’t have a company Blackberry instead.  I wanted to like it, really I did.  I think it could be great but I don’t think it’s there yet.  Certainly not as an e-reader.  I am not getting the “magic” or the “revolution”.  Maybe I will when it improves in future generations.   What do you think?