It’s often the case that the first product in a new category quickly becomes ascendant, so that it pushes out the competition and develops an unassailable position. It’s happened with Amazon.com, Netflix and other Internet legends.

That’s also happened, to a degree, with e-book readers. In this (still very narrow) space, most folks know the Kindle, also from Amazon. I wrote about the Kindle recently, but it’s not the only e-book reader out there. One of my favorite electronics companies, Sony, has its own version, called simply the Reader Digital Book.

It’s about $60 cheaper than the Kindle, but they’re both expensive.

One advantage of the Sony is that it looks better than the Amazon product. The Reader is much more minimalist, without the keyboard that feels tacked on to the bottom of the Kindle. Fewer buttons means a cleaner layout; and I’m not sure why you’d want a keyboard on an e-book reader, anyway. The point is to read, not type.

The Reader has enough storage, Sony says, to hold about 160 books. It also has storage card slots to add more books. One cool thing the Reader offers is access to the 500,000-strong library of Google public domain books. That should keep you busy for awhile.

One drawback of the Reader vs. the Kindle is that Amazon’s reader has access to its books, magazines and other content wirelessly, whereas Sony doesn’t offer any Internet connectivity. You have to hook it up to another computer and download your books. While this isn’t difficult, it is a multi-step process of which you should be aware.

The reading experience for the Reader gets solid marks from reviewers; you can also read Adobe PDF files and Microsoft Word documents on the Reader. Overall, Sony’s done a nice job with its Kindle competitor; it’s worth checking out before you plunk down your plastic on the “name” gadget, and see what the other guy has to offer.