holiday gift guideMany of my friends have already begun their holiday shopping, and I have no idea what’s on their lists. But I know what is on mine! And I have a holiday gift guide for the ebook fan who is looking for a great gift—for themselves, or for their friends and loved ones. Here are my picks for a very ebook holiday!

1) If Money is no Object

It’s got to be the iPad Air! Ever since I got my iPad Mini last year, I swore I was done with the big tablets. The Mini was so light and cute! And now…the big brother is just as light. It’s fast, it’s crisp and it can be paired with a bluetooth keyboard to make a pretty decent laptop replacement. If money were no object, I would ditch both my iPad 2 and my Mini and get this Rolls Royce of tablets in a heartbeat.

2) For the non-Apple Tablet Fan

I am going to go with the two big ones here: Kindle Fire if you are American and Kobo Arc if you’re not. These tablets are both cheaper and sturdier than their iPad brethren, and offer some good content options.

The Kindle Fire has an all-you-can-eat Freetime Unlimited service which is an affordable and content-rich pick for kids, but alas that service—and several other key Kindle modules—is only available to Americans and so the Kindle Fire is somewhat hobbled here in Canada.

The Arc, however, is available everywhere here, and with the pre-installed Google Play store (a more open option than the Kindle’s limited one) you can make up somewhat for the lack of pre-configured content. You can download Zinio for magazines, Netflix for streaming media and even download the Kindle app if the Kobo store doesn’t suit you!

3) For the Newbie eReader

You can’t go wrong with the Kobo Mini. It’s tiny, it’s light and at under $80, it’s cheap. Only problem: availability. We actually tried to buy one for someone last week, and we were told it is sold out everywhere and we’d have to go online. We didn’t have time for that, so we went with another gift option.

The Mini is also the only Kobo model with no on-board light, so if you think your aspiring ebook fan might want to read in bed, it may be worth springing for the next model up.

4) For the Reader You Don’t Know That Well

The major stores all offer gift cards, and some of them even offer you a way to gift individual books. If you want to go outside that box a little, some subscription services offer gift cards too: there is Zinio for magazines and Oyster for ebooks (alas, America-only).

5) For the Ultimate Treat For Yourself

Buy yourself some ebooks! All Teleread regulars will shortly be putting together their ‘best of the year’ book lists. I know I have been thinking already about which books to put on mine! I am looking forward to seeing what everyone posts and I will definitely be bookmarking some for future shopping!

Editor’s Note: Thanks to Joanna’s prompting, I’m working on my “best of year” book list. If any readers would like to join in, feel free to email me your best ebooks of the year, and I can compile a “From the Readers of TeleRead” list. We’ll all be broke from buying so many books by the New Year, but happy.

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"I’m a journalist, a teacher and an e-book fiend. I work as a French teacher at a K-3 private school. I use drama, music, puppets, props and all manner of tech in my job, and I love it. I enjoy moving between all the classes and having a relationship with each child in the school. Kids are hilarious, and I enjoy watching them grow and learn. My current device of choice for reading is my Amazon Kindle Touch, but I have owned or used devices by Sony, Kobo, Aluratek and others. I also read on my tablet devices using the Kindle app, and I enjoy synching between them, so that I’m always up to date no matter where I am or what I have with me."

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