Books are weird things. People tend to like to own them rather than borrow them from a library or from friends. Many people, including your reviewer, find it difficult to part with them, even if they'll only ever be read once or twice. And the tactile nature of a book is arguably one of the reasons that e-books have never taken off.

Which isn't to say the attempt has not been, and is not being, made. There are e-readers aplenty for mobile device formats including PDAs and phones. And there are larger dedicated readers like Sony's (US available) Reader.

In some respects the iLiad is more of the same. It is a tablet-style device with an 8.1-inch screen. The display manages 16 shades of grey and uses the technology patented by E Ink (www.eink.com). It is easy on the eye, works perfectly indoors as well as out, and is low on power consumption.

The iLiad can read plain text, PDF and PRC data formats - the latter is used by the popular Mobipocket reader. Between them these formats mean it can cope with plenty of e-books. There is a very comfortable long rocker along the left side of the screen for moving between pages, and using this feels strangely ‘book-like'. Trust me on that one, it really does.

The iLiad can also read HTML, JPG, BMP and PNG formats, so it can display graphics readily (with the greyscale caveat).

Even more expansively, you can write to the screen using the provided stylus, creating your own documents and drawings from scratch or annotating existing ones. You can't use a fingertip or anything but the provided stylus for direct input, though.

You need a separately available desktop application (£40) to really make the most of this feature and convert handwritten notes into editable text. And you need to use the PC software that comes with the iLiad to bring the original and edited parts of any PDF document together as a single new document. So getting a lot out of the iLiad can be a somewhat convoluted process.

Onboard memory is limited to 128MB. E-texts tend to be fairly small files so this should be plenty, and you can also read directly from CompactFlash cards, SD cards or USB key drives which fit into appropriate slots on the reader.

If you install the provided PC software the iLiad can update its content when you connect it to a PC, grabbing stuff you've pre-downloaded for it. And Wi-Fi means you can even make connections over the air.

The iLiad functions surprisingly well as an e-reader. It is light, its screen is great and it's easy on the eye. But books made from real paper are so much more rewarding to use, and you can buy an awful lot of books for the price of one iLiad. As for the added features, they surely have a market, but it is more likely to be in business or education than at home.