I’m on a quest to find my next e-reader. Not… of course… that there’s anything wrong with my Kindle… or my Nexus 7 tablet. (Kobo, Kindle, Bookshout, Google, etc) It’s just that I have a next-reader wish list in the back of my head, and truth be told, I haven’t been 100% happy with any of them since my very first head-over-heels in love Sony Reader.

I know I’ll never get down to one device. Not with my comic books and occasional non-fiction, want-to-see it in color photograph or diagrams.

But I would like an e-ink reader that actually has ONE program that will let me read all of my books. I’m probably not the only one who has books spread across multiple platforms. And, let’s be honest, they’re starting to do it for television and movies with the Movies Anywhere App. So, all my books on one program, so I don’t find myself sitting there, trying to remember whether what I was reading was a Kobo book, a Google book, or a Kindle book.

And… I would like a reader that treats me like an intelligent, adult reader, and not like a kid being bribed to do homework. I’ve never quite wrapped my head around the fact that one of my apps offers “merit badges” for assorted “reading accomplishments” and another one actually sends me e-mails in which it congratulates me on meeting my reading goal. (the default “goal” apparently is about 2000 words per day.) Spent an actual hour reading? GOLD STAR FOR YOU!

Nope. I would like a device which recognizes that I am already a reader. I read for fun. I don’t need encouragement to do so.

And while we’re on the subject, I’d like a reader with a little heft to it. I’m not backpacking six miles up a mountain with a bivy sack. The device doesn’t have to be light enough to make space for more MREs. Something solid and elegant.

The hardcover version of an e-reader.

Let’s just pretend that it might be something to pass down to the next generation, or at least, something that wouldn’t look out of place in an old library.

Also, I would like it to be blue.