I got Grete a kindle and she loves it. It is good for reading only. Not much else. But as an ereader it is awesome. Great e-ink screen which uses actual ink stuck to the screen to create the page - so once the page is set it doesn't require further power - thus the battery can last upwards of a month. I got her the 3g/wifi version. Great size and very thin and light. No problems holding it in your hand for long periods of time. The other cool feature is that you can upload ebooks from your personal collection to the device. The one drawback to the Kindle is that it does not work with e-lending from public libraries. It won't handle the format. (for that you should look at the nook from barnes and noble) Which brings me to the last point. The kindle is an ereader only. If you want to DO more things with the device - then look at the Nook color from B&N or (shudder) the ipad. I just got a Xoom - google's answer to the tablet market. Love it - although it's still a little rough around the edges and I wouldn't recommend it just yet!

Hope that helps.

Dan