This guest blog post is contributed by Boomerater, a free online resource for Baby Boomers helping you find everything from advice on wealth planning to beach vacations. Seniors for Living contributes its properties to Boomerater’s Dementia Care directory.

A new Q&A discussion from Boomerater’s forums appears here each Friday. In honor of Cyber Monday, though, we’re featuring “Ready, Set, Shop…” today. Read on to learn more about Boomerater members’ great holiday gift ideas.

The Nook or the Kindle? One of the newest, most talked about products this year is the e-reader.   Barnes and Noble’s Nook (due out later this month, but hard to get this holiday season) and Amazon’s Kindle are the two big competitors battling it out in the e-reader arena. Both let you download books on line to read from these small, portable devises.

Here’s what one comparison shopper had to say about the pros and cons of each:

“I intend to purchase an e-reader this year and have been researching both models. Both the Nook and Kindle list at $259, with books running about $9 each.  Which to buy depends on the features that are most important to you.  Both are the same cost, about the same size with a similar screen.  The pros of the Kindle are its text to speech feature and a free web browser, including Wikipedia. Also, the Kindle’s battery life is reported to be about 40% longer than the Nook (14 days vs. 10 days.) The Nook has a color touch screen (Kindle is B&W, with keyboard.) I personally prefer a keyboard over touch, but the color screen is nice. Nook also has LendMe, a feature that lets you lend books you’ve purchased to friends for free – but no one knows how many titles will be available to lend. The Kindle allows you to put up to 6 people on one account, but no lending. Nook also supports PDFs and has a replaceable battery.  It may ultimately come down to which titles are available, after all, who wants an e-reader that doesn’t offer the e-books you want to read?”

Any ideas for an easy-to-use cell phone? “Look into the Jitterbug OneTouch. It’s basic, but really easy to use. Text is larger. And it lets you just say the name of the person you want to reach. It also has a really easy way to reach 911. My mom absolutely loves her Jitterbug Phone. It’s easy to adjust the volume and the display buttons are nice and large. It works very well with her hearing aid.”

Any product to help the computer-challenged access email without a computer? “I would suggest this amazing service called The Celery. It is a fax machine that allows you to get email without using a computer. You write you a letter, put it in the Celery machine and press send. You can also send pictures just by putting them through the device. Your family can even send you color pictures that will print out of the Celery machine in photo-quality. Another great feature of the Celery is a computer-less email system that doesn’t require an internet connection. The Celery plugs into an existing phone line. This system is a great way for family members to stay in touch.”

What are the best kids books for grandkids? “You can’t go wrong with the all-time favorites that have been entertaining children for generations.  Where The Wild Things Are, No More Monkeys Jumping on the Bed, Goodnight Moon, and If you give a Mouse a Cookie. For tapes, I’d suggest videos your grandchildren will love that you will also enjoy watching with them.  The Wizard of Oz is a perennial winner. Matilda, The Princess Diaries, Finding Nemo, Mrs. Doubtfire, Shrek, Babe, AirBud and The Parent Trap are all great tapes for children.”

Add your own suggestions and find out what others had to say about great holiday gift ideas on Boomerater.com.