Advice on Ebooks
 

I'm looking for advice on purchasing an Ebook. I've never looked into them before so I don't know what features I should be looking for or even who the leading manufacturers are. I did a preliminary search and learned a bit, but I thought it would be better to get the experience of some people who may know about them first hand.

I really just want something basic. I want to be able to download .pdf files, read them turn pages and maybe do some highlights or take notes. I don't need wifi connectivity or even an MP3 player.

One thing that does concern me is possilble piracy lockouts. i do plan on trying to hunt down texts via ebook, and I don't want to have to deal with anti-piracy issues. Also is there a hacker community involved with these things? What kind of bonus features can I look forward to with hacked firmware?

Any help is appreciated. Thanks.

The library where I work uses NetLibrary and eBrary for eBooks, but the books themselves aren't purchased per se. Rather, we purchase a license that allows us to put the books in the catalog. It's still a one-time fee like purchasing a book but the nature of the arrangement is different--we don't own anything.

Our system is set up so that the books can't generally be downloaded; they have to be streamed through the library catalog or in some cases processed by reader software. You can theoretically access them using a reader like Kindle, but again there isn't any physical file transfer.

Was there a specific book you wanted to buy?

My apologies:

I didn't title this properly. I mean to say Advice on Ebook readers. It's primary use will be for textbook downloads.

I haven't personally tried it, but I hear that the Amazon Kindle is all the rage today.

Personally, if I were to dish out $300+ for something that can read ebooks, I'd get a netbook. I own a EEE PC 10" (1000H) and use it to read ebooks occasionally. Like you, I find most of my texts on the internetz and the thing is, a proprietary "ebook reader" might not be able to read .chm or other file types. Then again, you could always convert it on your PC, but with this method you can save yourself the hassle and well, have a laptop.

edit: on Dyesan's suggestion I'm going to get the Asus EEE PC 1000HE. I didn't know they even existed until he mentioned it and after doing some research they seem to be very highly regarded. It's a little bigger than what I wanted initially, but the drastically increased flexibility is where it's at.