There are thousands of ebooks out there. I particularly like reading from my Palm device in the middle of the night, with the blue-glowing text gently leading me forth into fanciful worlds. No turning on a bright white light that keeps your partner awake for hours.

Another great use of the readers is having readily accessible reference material. Just one example--you can carry around the Constitution of the United States, which can come in handy when a discussion focuses on the vagaries of the Electoral College or presidential succession. "But when would any of that ever be needed?" you ask. Hmm… can you say Florida?

After trying just about all the document readers available, I've reached some conclusions about which ones work best. Selecting an ideal reader is a highly personal matter, but it helps to know what the "reviewer" likes. Here, then, are my preferences. If you haven't used an ebook reader before, you're in for a treat. If you're brand new at this, the following could help you pick your ideal document reader.

Preferred features
The following features are part of any document reader I'd consider to be worthwhile.

Full screen
Just like the old Word Perfect word processor, you want the reader out of your way so that it seems like you're reading a real book, not looking at a computer screen! Although Word Perfect left a word, line, and page counter in the lower right, it was unobtrusive and presented the cleanest screen of all word processors.

In many Palm readers, a command line of icons and buttons remains fixed to the bottom of the screen. In others, a menu bar is displayed at the top as well. All that takes up room, leaving less space for the author's words. A Palm device's screen is small to begin with, so the more real estate devoted to text, the better.

The best full screen views have only text--no progress line at the bottom, no scroll bar on the side, no tiny command bar, and no small square in the corner.