[Andy Griffith]

Hello,

New guy here trying to finalize a decision on an ereader and very happy to have found this forum. To say I am a little overwhelmed with this relatively new technology and jargon is an understatement. I've spent the last 7 hours or so reading some of the threads on this forum and it has been the single biggest help in all the material I have been reading over the last week or so.

I would like an ereader for leisure reading. I don't need it to do any more than that. No web surfing (except for possibly the question below), email, text books, etc.

Of chief importance is screen clarity, font size and type options, font darkness etc. My eyes are not so good at times and I find reading or using the gloss, colored type screens to be very straining. Sister inlaw was camping with us a couple years ago and the screen clarity on her kindle was very impressive.

A trip to best buy to review the options was only partially productive. Many of the display models were trashed, dead batteries, no power cords, missing all together, and the staff really didn't seem to informed on the devices.

I believe we have narrowed it down to the nook touch or kindle wifi.

I am a bit confused on the ebooks from the library deal. Our county library has a really poor selection of paper books, which is why we never use the place. I pulled four books off my shelf with dates from 1981 to 2007 and looked them up as ebooks from our library (uses the overdrive system) and not one of those books was available from the library.
I'm now wondering if being able to check out books from the library is that big of deal if the selection is poor?

Are there online ebook libraries that one can checkout ebooks from? Don't know how that would work given the brick and mortar library we are members of operates from our property taxes.

Some searching online I found something called internet public library and I looked up some newspapers, but it just had a link to the newspapers website to read. Which leads me to the next question. Is a web browser on the ereader a requirement to access some ebook resources? I ask because from the reviews the kindle seems to at least have a useable browser but the nook's browser was not so good?

It sounds like most people use their PC to manage their ebook inventory utilizing software such as calibre and then download the ebooks to the devices for use? I guess I'm not understanding how the obtainment and downloading of books is facilitated directly to the device without some sort of internet browser? I understand how the nook would hook directly with b&n and the kindle would hook with amazon, but what about all the other ebook sites that might be on the web?

I'd like a device that accepts the epub format or a converted version of the same, but I'm still confused about the format deal. I understand that amazon/kindle has a proprietary format, but can I buy a book from amazon, convert it to xyz format via calibre then put it on a nook to read? Similarly, can I obtain a book in epub format, convert it to amazon or other kindle accepted format via calibre and then read it on a kindle?

I like the smaller size of the nook as compared to the kindle, but I found the page change 'buttons' on the bezel to be more difficult to push and use than the ones on the kindle. But again, that may be because the demo units were well used. Has anybody else encountered this issue?

Thanks