A re there lots of paperback books and periodicals that you would like to read if only you could deal with the small print? Or would you read more hard-cover books if only they weren’t so cumbersome to carry around?

E-books (electronic books) could be for you. With an e-reader -- a small portable electronic device -- you can control the size of the text you read and store several dozen books, fitting them into the space that one magazine might normally require.

With e-books, you can also take advantage of the many free or very inexpensive (costing just a few dollars) electronic versions of classics that are available.

E-books first appeared in 1971, but today, they’re surging in popularity, thanks to...

Bookstores and online libraries that supply hundreds of thousands of e-books.

The development of e-readers that let you read electronic books more or less as you would traditional books.

A CLOSER LOOK

The current dominant player in the e-reader business is Kindle, a tablet-type device from Amazon.com. The latest version, the Kindle DX, displays text and pictures on a screen that measures 9.7 inches diagonally. The battery-operated DX is a little more than one-third inch thick and weighs about 19 ounces. It holds up to 3,500 books, magazines and/or newspapers.

While Kindle DX has big advantages, don’t buy one -- or any other e-reader -- until you’ve compared competing products. As for the Kindle DX, a big drawback could be price -- $489. The somewhat smaller Kindle 2 is priced at $299.

Understanding the Kindle can help you compare other products in the fast-changing marketplace. Unfortunately, unless you have a friend with a Kindle, there’s no way to try one before purchasing.

How it works: When you hold a Kindle in your hand, you’ll see a screen that uses E Ink, an electronic display that mimics a conventional written page. A Kindle must be read in the light because E Ink isn’t visible in the dark.

When you turn on the antenna, it links to the Internet via a wireless connection. There’s no extra charge for the connection that lets you download books, magazines, newspapers and hundreds of blog sites on topics ranging from politics and sports to fashion and news events.

When you buy a Kindle, you also open an account at Amazon.com, whose Kindle Store is the main download site for books -- more than 300,000 and growing fast. (The number of books available for Kindle and its competitors is expected to grow substantially in the near future.) Most new books cost about $10, but many others -- especially older books -- are free.

A growing number of newspaper subscriptions are available, usually for $5.99 to $14.99 a month.

Examples: The Chicago Tribune, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post and USA Today.

Several dozen magazines are also available, including The Atlantic, The Economist, The New Yorker and several mystery and science fiction periodicals.

Price: $1.25 to $10.99 a month.

Note: You cannot make a print copy of books, or anything else, downloaded to your Kindle.

You can connect a Kindle to your computer, from which you can download most portable document format (PDF) files, as long as they are not protected, or audio books from Audible.com. Material can include privately published books, newsletters from your house of worship, instruction manuals for home appliances and older books now in the public domain.

Thousands of books on which the copyright has expired are also available free for reading on a Kindle. The largest provider is Project Gutenberg at www.gutenberg.org. The Web site offers nearly 30,000 books.

DRAWBACKS OF KINDLE

You should be aware of Kindle’s limitations so that you can make comparisons with other products whose features are expected to change quickly over the coming months...

You can’t use Kindle’s wireless download feature in some parts of the US because Whispernet, its Sprint wireless service, isn’t quite as broad as Sprint phone service. You cannot use the wireless download feature anywhere outside the US. Hawaii and parts of Alaska do not have Whispernet coverage. To see whether a Kindle can download wirelessly in your area, go to www.showmycoverage.com/mycoverage.jsp?id=A102ZON.

Kindle’s E Ink doesn’t have as much contrast as newsprint, and it takes a second or two to go from one page to the next.

While book illustrations and photographs can be viewed, Kindle newspaper and magazine subscriptions often do not include many photographs or advertisements. (This keeps the file smaller.)

You can’t transfer books from one Kindle to another. If you want to lend someone a Kindle book, you have to lend him/her the device itself.

COMPETING PRODUCTS

Kindle’s features -- plus its advantages and shortcomings -- gives you a basis for comparing competing products...

The Barnes & Noble eBook Store. The retailer says that it has some 700,000 e-books available for download. In early 2010, the electronics company Plastic Logic is expected to start selling an electronic tablet-style e-reader that will download Barnes & Noble e-books. Details will be made public as the launch date approaches.

Until then, customers can download Barnes & Noble’s e-books on their desktop or laptop computers or to one of several handheld devices, including the iPhone, iPod and BlackBerry.

New e-books typically sell for $9.99, but some cost more than $20. Older titles are generally less expensive, and many of those with expired copyrights are free.

Information: Visit www.barnesandnoble.com/ebooks.

Sony Readers. The company has come out with three types of e-readers, and the latest -- the Reader Daily Edition -- shares many features with the Kindle.These include the ability to download books wirelessly, in this case via AT&T’s 3G mobile broadband network. With a seven-inch diagonal screen, the new Sony device has a suggested retail price of $399. Earlier Sony readers are smaller and less expensive but can’t download books wirelessly (you must connect to your computer). The company’s new product is an example of how fast the e-readers marketplace is changing.

Currently about 500,000 titles are available for Sony readers from The eBook Store. Best sellers typically cost from $7.59 to $14.84.

Information: Visit http://ebookstore.sony.com/reader.

Your own computer’s Internet connection. Thousands of books with expired copyrights can be downloaded free as PDF files, which then can be read on the computer’s monitor. The type size is easy to adjust. You can print copies of PDF files from your computer.