I need recommendations for e-readers. I have a really old Kindle, which is fine for reading plain old novels. But lately I've been getting into more academic books that have more graphs, diagrams, etc, etc and I want a new e-reader, preferably one that can also display color. I'd also like something that's useful for reading graphic novels and such.

I don't really care about other features, like running other apps. It doesn't even need wifi or 3g/4g. I certainly have no interest in an I-pad, as they're too expensive for my tastes.

Any recommendations/personal experiences?

Perhaps a Kindle Fire HD?

I would also recommend a Kindle Fire.  It's a fairly decent price point and the quality is pretty high.

If you're going to be reading a lot of multi-column books that require keeping the formatting intact (so reading them in a pdf format vs say an EPub that reformats the text to fit the screen) and especially if you're going to use it for graphic novels I'd recommend going with the 8.9" Kindle Fire or another tablet in the 9"-10" range.

Before purchasing my 8.9" Fire HDX I borrowed a friend's 7" Fire HD for a few days, as I was looking to purchase a tablet/e-reader for a lot of the same reasons you mentioned.  Reading layout dependent pdf files and digital comics.  I found the 7" screen to be too small to comfortably read when the full page was presented and having to scroll around was doable, but annoying.

Picked up my Fire in December and it's done an excellent job at presenting books/comics in a single page format that's clear and easy to read.

I have a Kindle Fire HD 7", and I can imagine the screen would be a bit small for what you need.  However, in many ways the Fires are like a tablet.  The main problem I have with mine is that there is no way provided, as there was on my Keyboard Kindle, to sort my many books.  This may not matter to you; if it does you can buy a third party program to help, with its limitations because it doesn't come from Amazon so there are privacy issues in what it can access.  Mostly those can be worked around though.

I have some serious issues with how Amazon manages their business. Kindles are basically unparalleled, so yes, I have one, but when it comes to tablets, I wouldn't stick with Amazon if I had a choice (and you do).

You can go iPad for a reasonable price if you get an earlier model. My iPad 1 works fine still, and I got it for free :)

Next to that, I've been really impressed with the nook. The color is impressive, and it is designed for books, while very price-competitive. I believe Samsung also has a competing product, although I've not seen it.

You know you can buy a cheap laptop for about $250 and put an e-book program on it?  Honestly, I do not see the point of buying a tablet, especially an i-anything.  Why would you want something that doesn't have a real tactile keyboard?  Why would you want something that can't really run Office programs?  Why would you want something that, well, there are just so many reasons to buy a laptop over a tablet.

http://bit.ly/XwSDNY One of the top results when I looked at it was a $170 laptop that could burn CD's or DVD's for you.  Try doing that with a tablet.  That one is heavy, it's 6 pounds, but there are many other choices.  Not to mention, you don't have to buy a cutesy little screen holder-upper because laptop screens just stay open.

Genghis, it depends on what he wants to do.  If he just wants to read, and if he wants something relatively small and light to carry wherever he goes, an e-reader should be sufficient.  It's like buying a computer, first think what you want to do with it, don't buy the one with all the bells and whistles if you will never use them.

A couple of my sisters have Kobos; they like to be able to check books out from the library, which you can't do with a Kindle here in Canada.  Another has an iPad, I think, but she uses features I doubt you would, like texting (she doesn't have a cell phone and when she got it one of her sons was across the country).  I started with a Keyboard Kindle that my husband won at a golf tournament (he had no idea what it was, one of his friends said I'd love it), and when I killed it the Fire was just coming out, so I figured I might as well 'go big'.

Perhaps one way to go is to check what formats the books you want come in, and what reader/whatever handles that.  I know it can be possible to convert, even I have managed to do it, but it's easier if you can just download.

For strictly reading, I prefer b&w e-ink screens, and have been really happy with Kobo's offerings.  Next time I'm in the states, I'll be upgrading to the Kobo Glow, assuming Kobo hasn't gone out of business by then.

If you want color, then it'd be a toss up between the Nook and Kindle (in my opinion).  I'm not a fan of Amazon's DRM, so given the choice, I'd go with the Nook.

Mooks I read most often on my smartphone, a Samsung Note 3. But for comics and similarly-sized documents a 9-10' tablet is hard to beat for ease of carrying and use.

In reply to Starfox (msg # 9):

Did you just call us all mooks? :)
This message had punctuation tweaked by the user at 14:39, Thu 10 Apr 2014.

I recommend the Nook. The color version does a lot and I hear that kindle reads only proprietary format, but Nook reads several formats including pdf and the newer models have access to google play and can get several apps that do all kinds of stuff. Nook can also view office files. I wouldn't use it for making or modifying such files, but if you wanted that, the mini-laptops would be better then any reader anyway, and comparable price too.

In reply to DarkLightHitomi (msg # 11):

The kindle can is designed to play most easily in the Amazon ecosystem, while the Nook hooks into the more traditional Google Play market.

However the kindle can gain a lot of flexibility to work with pretty much any file format, with a setting change and a specific app download.  So not as... (power(?)) user friendly out of the box, but you don't have to do something as radical as root it to read epubs, pdfs or cbr/cbz files.

I believe my Kindle can be used for much of the Google stuff, with a workaround.  There is a free program for converting file types; I have it, and did use it a couple of times, but mostly I have plenty through Amazon.  It also handles many of the games and apps in the Android store.

I just use my phone.