So I finally bought myself a Sony e-Reader (PRS-505), after deciding they are at a acceptable level to buy brand new. I was going to go for the new PRS-300 which is the smaller entry level version which Sony just brought out but it was the same price as the older and more smarter 505.
To date, I've been reading the Pirates Dilemma by Matt Mason, and in one day, I have read through 60+ pages. This might not sound like a lot to some people but I'm reading roughly twice as fast as I would if it was a dead tree book. I haven't loaded the reader with ebooks yet, it actually comes with a CD of classic books which I have yet to do anything with. Instead I have been hunting through Creative Commons licensed books and some of the Oreilly Open books. My next stop when I get time will of course be Project Gutenberg.
I got to say so far I'm impressed with the reader, yes its a bit slow but when reading its hardly anytime to flip the page. Wikipedia also clued me into the software called Calibre, which not only controls almost every aspect of the reader but also has scripting ability within the application it self. There is a script which will login to my google reader account and pull down all the unread items and arrange them into a ebook then upload the lot to my device. And because its all just Python, you can do all type of things, for example theres a user recipe which takes your instapaper and turns it into a book for you to read.
The Sony ereader is surprisingly very open. For example copying files is as easy as connecting via miniUSB (charges over it too) then drag files to its internal memory or cards. There are 2 card slots, one memory stick duo (booooo) and the other SD and SDHC (whoooo). The ebook formats it supports is quite large, including PDF, EPUB, LRF, TXT, RTF, LRX, HTML, etc. Via Calibre that list is pretty much endless with even support for files inside of Zip files (but not rar). So far I'm impressed and reading more that ever…