[ZombWii]

Calibre is capable of viewing & deleting all the Recommendations/New Releases/Previews on the device. It doesn't give you back that bottom quarter of the screen but it does give you blank-book images rather than unwanted or inappropriate suggestions, which remain the same week after week until you (for whatever reason) do a sync.

I, sadly, am one of those people apparently stuck on the older build of firmware 1.9.16 and cannot keep my bottom tab set to "Shortlist". So, while not a big deal, it means I'm not looking at book covers for teen vampire fiction or Swallows Of Kabul type Oprah-fiction...that's if I can even make out what those tiny grey-scale images actually are of.

A more adventurous soul may in fact be able to replace those images with others of their own selection with Calibre... I don't know for sure.

And FWIW, each recommendation/new release takes up about 1 MB of space on the Kobo. This seemed like a lot but I pretty much confirmed it by deleting them all, and then reloaded new ones by doing a Wifi sync of my Touch. The difference, according to my Device Information page on the Touch, was 14 MB. So for those who have experienced better performance with "lean", uncluttered devices getting rid of these files may be an easy way to help tighten your Kobo's belt. Deleting the numerous "Previews" will also yield some valuable space.

I, so far, have experienced no ill effects of making these deletions. All other experiences may vary, so take that into consideration.