I’m guessing that there will be many shiny eReaders wrapped up and placed under the Christmas tree this year. Given that the price of eReaders has dropped to below $100, they are becoming more affordable to more people.

When you go to buy ebooks though, the books might not be as cheap as they used to be. Over the last year or so the price of ebooks has been slowly creeping upwards.

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This month marks the 5-year anniversary of Brad’s Reader! In late December 2006 I began this blog using Google’s Blogger platform to write mostly about literature and philosophy.

Since then, Brad’s Reader has morphed from literature, to reading and writing, to technology. None of the changes were planned, they just sort of happened. As a result, the number of unique visitors has risen dramatically every year since.

In celebration of this 5-year anniversary, and the holidays, I’m giving away a $25 Amazon Gift Card!

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Sometimes it’s easy to forget that there are other tablet computers out there other than the iPad, Kindle Fire and Nook Tablet. The Kindle and Nook aside, the iPad remains the large fish in an expanding pond.

One of the newer tablets on the market is the Asus Eee Pad Transformer. Asus is known for making cheap netbooks for those who need a laptop, without all the frills and gimmicks of a Macbook or PC.

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The ebook industry is coming under heavy scrutiny from US and European officials investigating antitrust allegations. The justice department, states attorney general and EU officials are seeing whether or not several publishers fixed prices when they inked a deal with Apple before the launch of the iBookstore.

Central to the investigation is the “agency model.” This allows publishers to set ebook prices while giving Apple or Amazon (for example) a percentage of the sale. The agency model prevents ebook retailers from setting prices too low, thus devaluing the ebook (or so publishers say).

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You’d think a science fiction author would be one of the first to embrace emerging technology, like ebooks, for example. But there are some holdouts. One of them has been famed Sci-Fi author Ray Bradbury.

I wrote about him back in 2009, mostly about how much he loathed the internet. Well finally, Bradbury fans can read his classic Fahrenheit 451 (aff link) as an ebook.

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Even the most hardcore ebook enthusiast (like myself) might be putting their Kindle down in favor of a print book. Why? Parents are finding that print books are still the best medium for reading to their little ones.

I fall into this category. My son is a young toddler and he’s still at the age where he likes to explore things by putting them in his mouth. That’s what toddlers seem to do, put stuff in their mouths. They also throw, bang, drool on and have numerous other destructive methods in their arsenal. This means toddlers and eReaders don’t mix.

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Do you do most of your writing on a computer, or still use good old fashion longhand? I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately because my writing habits are a hybrid of the computer and a pen and paper.

I know this post seems to come out of left field, especially considering I recently wrote a review about how much I love the writing software Scrivener. That hasn’t changed. I still use (and love!) Scrivener for all my writing projects.

And I do a majority of my writing on my computer, or iPad, whichever is more convenient. Though sometimes it just seems easier to pick up a pen and paper to scribble out a scene or section for a current writing project.

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No matter how careful you are, it always seems inevitable that you will one day drop your tablet computer. Whether it’s an iPad, Kindle Fire or Nook Tablet, gravity doesn’t play favorites.

So which tablet can take a tumble and come out unscathed? Here’s a quick video demonstrating a Nook Tablet and a Kindle Fire falling from different heights on to different ground surfaces. Enjoy!

The Authors Guild isn’t holding anything back in their criticism of Amason’s Lending Library. The library program is available to Amazon Prime members, who pay $79 per year for membership.

The Authors Guild’s main complaint is that Amazon is lending out ebooks for free without the publisher’s permission, or even the author’s permission.

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Amazon’s Kindle Fire is now available to order. I’ve read a few reviews of the Fire, and they all seem pretty positive. A lot of reviews do point out the big differences between the Fire and iPad. Overall though, I think the Fire will be a viable, lower cost alternative to the iPad.

Here is a good video review from laptopmag.com that shows the Kindle Fire being put through the paces. Enjoy!