Can Sony's new Readers win over hardened bibliophiles? Photo: Getty

Ebooks, we are told, are the future of reading. These sleek devices, little bigger than a paperback, allow people to carry hundreds of books with them, and because they use eInk technology, you won’t experience the eye strain or discomfort you might suffer reading on a computer screen or mobile phone.

Sony is leading the ebook charge in Britain. Today, two new editions of its Reader range of ebook devices go on sale: the compact Pocket Edition and the touch-screen Touch Edition.

There are many things to recommend the ebook: for a voracious reader, the ability to carry many titles is a real boon; for casual readers, and for students, the ability to electronically bookmark pages and annotate text holds huge appeal.

The biggest obstacle the ebook faces is convincing people that a battery-powered gadget is better than the printed word, which, after all, has sufficed for the last 500 years. People have a peculiar attachment to the look, feel and smell of old books, a tactile experience that the metallic efficiency of ebook readers cannot hope to replicate.

So who better to assess whether ebooks really are the future than Christopher Howse, a discerning bibliophile? We gave him both the Pocket Edition and Touch Edition to see whether he could be persuaded to surrender his collection of dusty classics in favour of a more high-tech reading experience.