With the rapid technological developments of the last century, our habits have become fickle things, ever subject to change. Smart phones followed computers in becoming an inseparable part of our society, and it seems that e-book readers or kindles seem to be the next big thing.Like many, you may once have thought kindles were a useful tool for some academic reading, but that they could never replace hardcover books. Many people resisted the tide for quite some time, saying either the lack of the smell of books or the sensation of turning pages kept them from switching to a e-book readers. But when you receive a reader and try it out, a whole new world opens up. Of course, you can still buy hardcover books for the sake of your library, but when it comes to day to day reading, a kindle should be your first choice.Before discussing different kinds of kindles, we need to convince you about their pros, so let me list them. E-book readers have three main advantages over either books or tablets with a reader application:1. Storage: Being able to carry hundreds of books in a very small device is extremely handy. Most of the time, we can't bring our books with us for the simple reason that carrying them in our hands hinder our daily activities. Ladies might be at a bit of an advantage, though, since they can carry one in their purse. Nevertheless, for extended trips we would need a suitcase full of books, but with a kindle, problem solved!2. Battery: This advantage concerns other tablets, smart phones or laptops of course. Any kindle worth its name can last at least for weeks if not months. Although if your kindle is lasting more than a month, you might want to up your reading frequency. Nowadays, we carry numerous electronic devices with short battery life, and either look constantly for sockets or have to carry a power supply the size of a personal power plant, therefore the longevity of battery is most welcome. This is probably the most important plus.3. Access: With a kindle you have an entire new world, filled with books never printed before. Many new writers start their journey by publishing electronically, as it cuts costs drastically. Granted, some of these books are in dire need of editing or are poorly written, but you never know when you will stumble upon a gem. Also, these books are quite cheap, so whenever you find yourself without something to read, you can decide on a gamble.There is another advantage to using a kindle. Electronic books are considerably cheaper than their hardcover counterparts, but if you are building your own library, you will probably be buying your favorites in both platforms, so financially it might be a bit steep.I still use my quite-dated Amazon Kindle Keyboard, but both for the purposes of this article and while looking for an upgrade, I surfed the net for new e-book readers. If you are new to the kindle scene, then you are in luck. There are now more than 20 models from every price range and quality. From Amazon's Kindle Paperwhite to Barnes & Noble's Nook models, from Sony's Reader series to Samsung's E6, you will probably be able to pinpoint your needs and make your purchase accordingly. While a bit late, Turkey has also made its debut on the sector, as a Turkish company released its own pocket reader "Calibro." This is especially important for our Turkish readers because with this development and its promising sales numbers, Turkish book dealers operating via the internet decided to follow Amazon's lead and focus on selling e-books too.While making your choice of which reader to buy, you might want to consider a few things. Their basic features are quite similar, but there are three important differences that should be mentioned. First are the file types. There are several for e-book readers, the most prominent ones being epub, mobi and pdf. The more your reader can recognize and open, the better. Second is the type of screen. "EInk" should be your preference, as in my personal experience, this is both the most book-like, and least tiring to the eyes. Led screens are big no-no. The last element to consider is extra features such as touchscreen, built-in dictionary, speech to text, etc. Touchscreen only serves to consume battery, and since it is a personal preference you may discard it entirely.Perhaps the biggest plus of e-books comes with the lessening of the consumption of paper, so these kindles are one of the biggest positive effects of technology on nature itself. You may think that these readers are the next big thing in technology because of personal reasons born out of convenience, but they are also important for the sake of nature.