Just joined and hope you can help an old silver surfer who struggles with all this techno stuff

Am hopefully getting a new Sony PRS505 but would appreciate some feedback before I splash the cash. Have played with one in my local Waterstones but I understand they use a protected format - a bit like Itunes with the music I guess.
Would I be able to download books from other suppliers and if so would I be able to convert them to be read on the player. If so how would I do this.
Looking forward to hearing from you and hopefully make new friends on this
site.
