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Welcome to MobileRead. Glad you finally poked your head up to say "hello".
Where in the South UK are you? I've spent quite a bit of time in southern England -- mostly around Winchester and Southampton. I'd really like to make an extended stay (3-6 months) after I retire if I could afford it.
I have a Sony PRS 505 as well -- and like you, I've not used the Sony Connect software at all. I have used Calibre for book conversion, but have not used it to load books onto the Reader. I simply use the operating system facilities to copy the book files onto the device.
Since you like science fiction, you'll be pleased to know that much of the classic SF that is out of copyright is available here at MobileRead. Unfortunately, SF got its big start in the 1940s and most of the body of literature is still under copyright. So, check out the free books at Baen.com and then follow the links to their Webscription site to purchase even more SF. There are a number of contemporary SF writers who have released their books with Creative Commons copyrights, who have given their books away at their web sites, or who sell them directly from their web sites. Some who give away the books have put up a "tip jar" so that readers who enjoy the books may pay for them kind of like the ShareWare concept. Also take a look at what's available at Fictionwise, Books-on-Board, and other online book stores.
Not all the stores sell books in the Sony LRF format. If you find them in the ePub format, your Sony Reader should handle those (assuming that you've got the current software level on it). If you don't find LRF or ePub, many of the Sony users have had a lot of success in removing the encryption (DRM) from either MobiPocket (.prc) or Microsoft Reader (.lit) files and then converting to the Sony LRF format with Calibre. I have converted both MobiPocket and Microsoft Reader files, but I have not worked with a DRM file yet.
As I said, welcome to MobileRead. You'll find a number of folks from the UK who hang out here.
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