One reason that I decided to get my x51v is because I think that it can actually be used to read a book while on the subway without killing my eyes. My new baby is due on Monday and I've never looked forward to a weekend ending before.

There seem to be an awful lot of formats:
Lit - MS Reader
chm - in help format
html - opera maybe?
txt - any type reader
pdb - palm backup? How is this a book?
doc and rtf - Word etc
any more?

Is there a program (or programs) that takes advantage of the VGA to give a better presentation, maybe something that works in landscape mode? I don't mind paying for the reader or even the books, although there are so many in public domain that I don't think that I'll live long enough to need to buy too many.

Any advice greatly appreciated.

Have a look at mobipocket - excellent reader and library, also allows you to read news feeds - I have been usng ofr three years and find the autoscroll faciity make it worth while.

www.mobipocket.com

Mike

So Mobi installs on XP and then downloads to the Axim? What else does it do on XP? Also, does it take advantage of VGA? Is VGA a big help? I figured that 640*480 would be great.

you can read on pc with mobi. - allows managment of books and enews subscriptions.

Not sure if it does take advantage of VGA - but looks very good on x51v. variable font size, cusotmizable font and background colours - variable line spacing etc.

easiest is to download the free reader (no autoscroll) have a look and if you like it - buy!

Mike

Autoscroll would adjust to my reading speed and just sort of move along? Not bad perhaps.

What formats does Mobi handle?

I can't wait until the baby arrives.

If you already have ebooks on your desktop pc(no matter what format), you better use repligo, with this you can convert and read nicely everything on you PPC. Yes, it does take advantage of VGA.

For chm files, converting one by one chapter might be hassle in Repligo(other format can be converted in a single go). So, in the case of chm, I would suggest to use either uBook or Microolap chm viewer, or you can buy a convering utility which converts chm to html tree or word doc file.

Lit - MS Reader
Correct.
chm - in help format
uBook
html - opera maybe?
Yes, and IE Mobile, of course.
iSilo via iSiloX conversion.
txt - any type reader
Word Mobile, many readers
pdb - palm backup? How is this a book?
Palm DataBase file; eReader, iSilo, and most other readers, I guess
doc and rtf - Word etc
Yes, and TextMaker.
any more?
PDF - Adobe Reader
PDF, RGO - RepliGo
iSilo format

The programs I mentioned (except Adobe Reader) support VGA. My favorite eBook reader is iSilo but I also use eReader. iSiloX can turn a complete website into an ebook. RepliGo can convert anything that can be printed on the desktop PC into an ebook.

Transcendental x50v: 4 + 8 GB SD and CF Transcend cards

I use TomeRaider 3 - http://www.yadabyte.com/index.html

Galatians 2:20
Semper Fi

From the µBook site:

Renders .TXT, .RTF, .HTML, .PML, .PDB and .PRC (Non-Secure), files book-like.
Extracts text out of .PDF (Non-Secure) files.
Displays PRC, RTF and HTML images, .JPG, .GIF, .PNG, .WMF (in RTF) or .BMP.
Opens text inside .ZIP, .CHM and .RB files, uncompressing paragraphs on the fly, limiting the amount of memory required (except CHM).

I've been using this forever. It doesn't read doc files directly but you can open in them Word and save as RTF and you're good to go. I especially like the ability to read from within zip files as it saves me a lot of space on my SD card. It can't open Lit files (only MS reader can do that) but there is a free method to convert Lit files which I probably can't post here (remember Google is your friend )

That's a pretty funny name. I guess they just manage to skirt a copywrite violation.

Tome means a volume forming part of a larger work especially a large or scholarly book.
Kinda a neat play on words... I got this program because I saw that so many sources for books that had these kind of files listed so it seemed to be popular.

I doubt that its name is close enough to "Tomb Raider" along with it not being in competition to the game to illicit a copywrite law suit!

Galatians 2:20
Semper Fi