The kindle is serious reading pleasure for me. I actually get a lot of reading done without getting my eyes tired. I still have the GEN3 (photo). Now you can get a Kindle Touch for $99 and a Kindle Fire for $199, however the older Kindle is just brilliant.
Why does the Kindle Rock ?
1. The screen quality
It reads like a paper book, it does not reflect in the sun. You can read great quantities without getting eye-tired. This is especially important due to the large amount of books I have on my list ;) - It is true though that the Kindle format is way better than the average pdf. Most pdf books however read well enough.
2. Device management
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Navigation is pretty simple. The touch version probably is better, but the older one with the sidebuttons works quite well. The Amazon store integration is awesome. You buy a book online and it syncs automatically to your Kindle. I am not sure how 3G is offered now, but when I bought my GEN3 Kindle about a year ago, 3G was just a little bit more expensive, so ideal for travelling independency. But without 3G you can still sync your books via Wifi, or just connect your Kindle to your laptop for old-fashioned USB transfers.
3. No distractions (!)
This is an important argument for me to stick with the Kindle for reading. I am a big fan of Apple products, but when it comes to reading, all (social) apps and notifications are not doing any good: I never get much reading done. This is not the case with a Kindle: you basically use it for what it is good at: accessing ebooks. As many things: the simpler the better and the more efficient.
4. Design
The design is great. I think the screen size is ideal for reading. You can also change character size, screen orientation (vertical vs. horizontal), spacing, etc. Again I have a GEN3 that had this all figured out quite well already. I imagine the newer versions only got better. The GEN3 already had MP3 support which you can easily toggle with alt-spacebar, so I can even 100% concentrate in public places. It even had text-to-voice already, so at least the Kindle formatted books can be read out loud if I want to listen for a change. Another important thing to note is the large battery duration. I don't have the specs at hand, but it is not often I have to recharge.
These are some highlights of my satisfaction with my GEN3 Kindle. Conclusion: low distraction rate, reading-friendly paper-like screen format, and easy book syncing (pdf / epub / usb / purchased). For me it's the best reading device out there.
