1997 - Compaq HPC - Got a Black Friday deal for US$129.
http://www.businessweek.com/1996/50/b350536.htm
From there I moved to a Philips Velo 500:
http://the-gadgeteer.com/1998/06/05/...00_hpc_review/
...Then, an HP Jornada 568...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jornada_560_series
Which was *Really* good (MSReader + Mobipocket) so I stayed the course until I moved to the Dell Axim x51v:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dell_Ax...xim_X51_family
...and, simultaneously:
http://reviews.cnet.com/mobile-conne...-20627295.html
With those two I was set until I got a BeBook in 2008. I fooled around with the firmware-of-the-month-club until I had enough and got the PB360 in november 2009.
I added a refurb K2 this spring and I'm looking to the release of the PB901 and the ULVCore CPU Win7 tablets next spring as candidates for my large format ereading. (The TC1000 is still working fine but the power switch is looking to die soon and the repair estimate was not good.)
Along the way I've played with a lot of other PDA, eReader, and tablet hardware but that's what I've dropped my money on. At the time, they all satisfied.