My thanks to you all for your input since I last posted, and my apologies for my prolonged silence - I've been packing up to come home after a long stay in Russia. I've been keeping up with the thread, but not really had time to respond.
Pace
ProfCrash, I'm really not concerned about having any sort of wireless connectivity in my eReader: I don't see any advantage to it, although
Piper_ has pointed out a use that hadn't occurred to me. It doesn't seem any hardship to sideload a dozen books or so off my TBR list, which ought to keep me going for a while. The features which are important to me are the ones I mention in my opening post.
BuddyBoy, I'm not planning to use Amazon a lot, both for philosophical objections to their set-up, but also because, if my current TBR list is anything to go by, for the next few years most of my reading is likely to be free classics, with the odd library book and academic pdf thrown in... I'm hoping that the size of the Sony (hang on, does that mean I've made up my mind?
) means that it will be my sole reader, and so, as
Harmon says, syncing between devices shouldn't be an issue. Harmon, what was it that grabbed you about the 650?
JeremyR, thanks for the warning about the Calibre, ah, feature. It's another factor to bear in mind. I do have quite a sizeable epub collection already.