Oh, I hear you, boswd.
Actually, the Mine vs Yours threads are tedious to me. lol I'm in a Kindle/Sony, and soon-to-be Nook Color house, and one of my best friends loves his Nook.
It's all about personal tastes and circumstances.
So I wasn't meaning my comments about the Kindle to be an argument. I just gave my personal reasons for choosing the Kindle over the Nook - as I said, they might not be the same needs or preferences as the OP.
e.g., For me, TTS is the #1 priority, but plenty of people don't care about it at all. Others might not need such long battery life, etc.
Like I said, if the things I listed weren't an issue, then I'd probably go for the $89 nook refurb.
Yup, and all those things are good to point out, so people can choose what fits their needs and wants.
FTR, I don't think the Nook is "heavy". I just wanted the least weight and size I could, all other things being equal, to make it lighter in my purse and to hold in bed. I also wanted a cover, which adds weight and bulk. If the OP doesn't, then there's that to consider.
This is the only area where we disagree.
- The work around isn't any work at all. It's also just a click and/or drag. You don't even have to use a cable.
- The OP wants to use calibre anyway. (Lots of people do - it offers a ton of awesome features, and it's especially helpful to keep track of books if you use more than one store, which is the common reason given for choosing an epub device.)
- It takes no work to strip DRM after the 1 time download and clicks to install the plugin. It's transparently done whenever you drop the book into calibre.
- It takes no work to convert - just couple clicks, and a minute or two.
From there, it's a right-click to send to the kindle, via email or usb. (For that matter, it automatically converts on send.)
So that's the only area we disagree on.
Sony/Nook/Kindle - they're all great ereaders. What makes one a better choice than another just depends on personal tastes and needs that vary between people.