Looks like since I have been away the topic of e-books and the associated readers have fallen by the wayside.
I have added another Tool / Toy that has brought me a lot of satisfaction in e-book land. A Sony PRS-505. I love it. I still keep my X-50V for reading but the Sony is certainly a step up on the Axim when it comes to reading.
So I was throwing this comment out to see if there are any others interested in the Sony or your still plodding along with the Axim.
Just wondering.

You can have peace. Or you can have freedom. Don't ever count on having both at once.
Robert A. Heinlein

   

Most of my Electronic 'reading' is now in the form of Audio fiction... and for written fiction i've reverted to paper...

I'd certainly be interested in hearing more about the sony. what makes it better than the axim from a readers point of view?

This week I have been mostly listening to..... Short cummings audio

Life — In Funny, Six-Minute Slices

     

So much and so little time to share it...
hmmmm Sony Portable Reader - MobileRead Forums

This is a site I frequent a lot to discuss readers. On it you can get a lot of data on the various Readers available.
My personal favorite is the Sony because of Size, easy to read screen and the ability to load books on a internal Memory, A Sony Memory stick or a SD card, I have over 1,000 books currently stored on cards. It reads the Sony format (LRF), adobe and MS word as well as RTF. While it is in black and white it does a quite acceptable job of displaying graphics, especially maps and drawings.
Unlike the Axim it does not have a light source and uses E-ink....to display the data.
Heres Sony's link to it:
https://www.sonystyle.com/webapp/wcs...5739&langId=-1


And if you have a ton of MS formated e-books not to worry, a little reading on the Mobile read forum will show you that there is a free program developed by a member on the site that will convert the MS lit to the LRF format with a minimum amount of fuss.
Hope that gives you an over view.

You can have peace. Or you can have freedom. Don't ever count on having both at once.
Robert A. Heinlein

   

By the way the PRS -505 also plays MP3s so if your into audio books it will fill the bill, although I don't personally use it for that, I use the audio books while pretending to work in my office.

You can have peace. Or you can have freedom. Don't ever count on having both at once.
Robert A. Heinlein

   

Thanks for posting all this, I'm saving it against the time I might buy an eReader.

Britta (no PDA photo)

That looks like a device I would like to have. Thanks for posting this.
The only drawback for me is the price tag for the reader. Maybe there'll be a sale or a refurbished one someday. In the meantime I'll be checking out the forum you linked us to.

There is a certain time and place for spontaneity.

I've got my order in for a Kindle. I know it's fugly, but other than that I think it seems like a better buy, on paper at least.

The Kindle is getting lots of Press at the moment. I have not had an opportunity to hold one or take a look at the screen. There has been some discussion involving the DRM issues with the Kindle being so tightly tied to Amazon.
By the way Baen.com is now offering all of their books in multiple e-book formats including the LRF for Sony as of the last couple of weeks.

You can have peace. Or you can have freedom. Don't ever count on having both at once.
Robert A. Heinlein

   

True, the DRM for the Kindle is tightly tied to Amazon, but the reader can read un-DRMed mobi formats, of which I have many. Also, I've seen that there's a trick/hack/whatever that will allow you to read the DRMed purchases from mobipocket.com. I haven't had a reason to explore that yet. Maybe once I actually get my Kindle I'll think about trying it.

Baen is just a genius when it comes to e-books. They've got a great philosophy and I think a pretty smart business model for it. It will be interesting to see what they do or how it changes if the e-book market takes off thanks to the new devices, but at the moment I don't think it's a big enough market for it to be an issue. I love their free library. I've started reading several authors (Bujold, Weber, Ringo, and Flint) just because I was able to get a taste out of the library. And I think I've done what they really wanted, which was sample electronically and purchase a dead tree version. I'm hoping that when TOR finally finishes rolling out their new e-book plan that they take the same route.

Speaking of TOR, have you gotten on their mailing list yet? It started 8 (I think) weeks ago and they're sending out one free book in pdf, mobi and rtf each week. The first week was Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson (he who is completing the last book of the Wheel of Time) which was brilliant. The next week was Spin by Robert Charles Wilson. Both were books that I might not have picked up in dead tree and both were books that I got thoroughly into once I started reading them.

I am signed on with TOR as well.
I have all of the Free Library on BAEN. I especially like Ringo, Flint, and Webber.
As for new authors, non e-book (legal that is) I love Jim Butcher and Simon Green.
TOR does not do the LRF....yet.

You can have peace. Or you can have freedom. Don't ever count on having both at once.
Robert A. Heinlein

   

Just an FYI...

I finally got my Kindle early this week and I love every square inch of it. It's not as ugly as it looks in pictures. Actually, it looks like a giant white SD card, which is kind of strange. I love the ability to download samples and try a book before buying. And shopping via Kindle is pretty easy too. I'm not sure it disappears in my hand while I'm reading, but I'm still getting through books without any problems. The best benefit so far... Baen books that would cost me $15.00 in hardcover at B&N only cost me $5.00 in e-format. Just snagged Time Spike and looking forward to getting into it.

Baen is certainly the cat's meow when it comes to SF e-books.
You can build your library quickly with their free content and as you said the price is right on their new stuff as well.

You can have peace. Or you can have freedom. Don't ever count on having both at once.
Robert A. Heinlein