Interesting comments. First, the on/off slide switch is the easy way to go and works fine, as noted above. It takes about 3 seconds to start up. You should always use this switch when you are carrying the Reader around. This "shut off" function works great--no long startup times. The manual tells you all about it.
Funny, I've had NO problems with the Library software--not a single crash in 6 months of use (originally installed as Connect of course). And I have a bunch of purchased books, homemade ones (text/RTF), pdf, etc., including the 10,000+ silkpagoda files all ion the Library. I was expecting problems, but not a single glitch or problem (running WinXP).
The ergonomics are good for me, and if I am reading with one hand, sometimes I remove the cover from the 505 which fits it in my hand better. I don't think it's heavy at all.
As for Sony's ebook store, it seems to be getting better. Heck, they just added pretty much all of Philip Dick's works.
Although I think I already own all of it in paper versions, except for one unpublished early novel which I hadn't come across before.
As for mp3 playback, I think it was a mistake to even add it to a book reader. Personally, I find listening to music distracting at best while reading. And dedicated mp3 players are much better for the purpose. I guess it is a feature that was easy and cheap to implement based on the rest of the hardware, but because it's there people expect more mp3 features. They should have left it out IMO. As for audio books (which I *cannot* follow at all!), those are better suited for dedicated mp3 players as well IMO.