I'm not sure where you got the idea that the battery life is poor. I've found it to be great. In the summer--the time of year I read the most--I get 2 to 3 weeks out of a charge. In the winter, it goes up to 5 or 6 weeks.
Just remember to turn the wifi off (airplane mode) and turn the eReader off (as opposed to sleep mode) if you aren't going to be using it for a couple of hours. I have mine turn off automatically after 30 min.
As others have said, library management is pretty much none existent. The sort functions work well enough for me. By sorting, it's a lot easier to find a book on my Kobo than in my dead-tree library.
I find the short list feature useful as well.
A few people have mentioned the dead tap issue. I've noticed that this happens more often with side-loaded books and less with kepubs. And, it's a lot less annoying than the old double-tab problem.
It's true that the Touch is a cheap eReader but, as taming pointed out, it has some great features. I'd like to add a pretty decent dictionary to her list. (Much better than the on the Wifi version.)
What I like about
cheap, is that I don't hesitate to take it to places where it might be damaged. (camping, backpacking, the beach) If I break it, it won't break me to replace it.
