Where can I find a Sony Reader?

It’s hard to get the books I like in Taiwan. I’ve scoured Eslite and Page1 and their websites. I’ve found nothing.
The best thing would be to buy a Kindle or a Sony Reader. Obviously you can’t just buy a Kindle anywhere in Taiwan. But what about the Sony Reader? Can you buy that here? If so, where?

Not sure that it’s available here. I believe there isn’t much of a market for it. There are exceptions, of course. I picked up a Sony reader for an avid reader friend of mine on my last trip to the US and brought back. If he couldn’t find it here, it’s probably not available here.

Generally, with all the usual exceptions, the Taiwanese market is enormously price sensitive. Even new release books come out here in paperback because they can’t sell hardbacks at US$25 - US$30 a pop. There will be precious few who will shell out US$300 for something they still have to pay more for content.

Do you have a smart phone? I use Stanza on my iPhone to read e-books. I might buy the Sony my next trip home, but not the wireless version. Useless outside the US because the 3G will be supported by ATT.

i asked the sony store at 101 a few months back and said they dont stock the sony reader here at all unfortunately
its probably only a matter of time before china come out with cheaper lookalikes/copies of the thing anyway

For dead-tree books, check out Kingstone’s website: http://www.kingstone.com.tw/Default.html?actid=MainTop

Somewhat surprisingly, you can order a big range (FAR broader than eslite or Page 1) of English books on there, and you don’t have to pay the delivery charges of Amazon. Delivery can take a few weeks, since they’re presumably coming from overseas.

You’ll want to comparison shop with Amazon, since the actual price may be high, but usually you’ll wind up saving on the delivery.

I have one that I’m not using. It’s the older PRS-500 model. Let me know if you want it.

I bought an old compaq pda from Taiwanted for $1,000 NT and it’s got microsoft reader on it. I just download any book I want to read from a torrent site and off I go. I read 2 books a month on it. You get used to the screen size fairly quickly. Just make the font a little bigger and you’re laughing.

My concern wasn’t the screen size but the LCD screen damaging my eyes from attempting to read too much. I ended up importing the new Sony PRS-300. It was a wise decision!

Depending on whether you prefer older texts or newer ones, formats and DRM can be serious handicaps when buying ebooks. I own a Sony 505, and have to spend a lot of time converting ebooks to formats I can read on it (I bought it imported from the States). Even so, it’s a brilliant machine, and I’ve purchased a great deal of books since getting hold of it.

You can find a lot of information at mobileread.com (including information about legally free books), and some good ebook sites are booksonboard.com and fictionwise.com - but they’re starting to bring in geographical restrictions that make it harder to buy books if you’re not in the US or don’t own a US credit card (but there are ways around that). It can be a bit of a minefield, I’m afraid, but if you need any more info/help, mobileread.com’s the place to go.

Depending on whether you prefer older texts or newer ones, formats and DRM can be serious handicaps when buying ebooks. I own a Sony 505, and have to spend a lot of time converting ebooks to formats I can read on it (I bought it imported from the States). Even so, it’s a brilliant machine, and I’ve purchased a great deal of books since getting hold of it.

You can find a lot of information at mobileread.com (including information about legally free books), and some good ebook sites are booksonboard.com and fictionwise.com - but they’re starting to bring in geographical restrictions that make it harder to buy books if you’re not in the US or don’t own a US credit card (but there are ways around that). It can be a bit of a minefield, I’m afraid, but if you need any more info/help, mobileread.com’s the place to go.[/quote]

No such trouble for me… I’ve read books in TXT, PDF, RTF, and HTML all natively so far with no problem thanks to the new easy setting for font sizes. In fact, I just finished A Princess of Mars, Ender’s Shadow, and At The Mountains of Madness which were all in the first 3 formats, and I’ve read through Call of Cthulhu a few times (it’s a quick read)… all these books are in the above mentioned formats. Also, the new models (PRS-300 and PRS-600) have better contrast and less glare than the PRS-505 I hear, but I haven’t tried a 505 so I couldn’t report on that.

My one gripe is that Sony’s bookstore is crappy at best when compared to what’s available on the Kindle, but the Kindle wasn’t portable enough for me so the Sony Reader Pocket Edition was the choice for me (pocket-sized).

does anyone know anywhere in taiwan where i can buy a SONY READER?
or AMAZON KINDLE?

i was wondering if there are any stores or if either is any of the NIGHT MARKETS or ELECTRONICS MARKETS…

Have a friend help you import one.

i can import one just looking for an answer if i can actually find it here before i go about importing it.thanks.

Wish I could help. Sadly, there is NO way to buy a kindle or reader in Taiwan unless you find it used somewhere. Someone on the forums offered to sell me their used old reader, but I’d recommend springing for the Kindle now. The price has dropped and the whispernet is now international. I bought my reader literally weeks before this happened.

i don’t intend to download books…i intend to use books i already have as pdfs…

Sony PRS-300 might be a good choice for you. It’s about pocketsized and it suppords PDFs and all major text and html formats natively. The kindle requires a conversion. The PRS-300 is about 200 USD. A little less if you’re lucky. I think it’s the PRS-600 or something (check Wikipedia or engadget) that’s the new touch screen one. THere’s an old touch screen one but that sucked. Apparently this ones a little better, but be warned, I hear the screen reflects slightly more than the PRS-300.