[applewine]

As the sub-forum subject line says post here if you are "unsatisfied with all of them", and I am.

I want an e-ink reader which can connect directly to overdrive, and as far as I know there isn't one. This would allow me to use the e-reader to borrow and return books without using a computer.

The best physical design e-reader I like are no doubt the e-ink readers due to their light weight, not so much the "clarity" that people talk about with the e-ink technology, the feather light hold-ability is much more valuable to comfort.

Of the e-ink readers I like the Nooks the best. The Nook Simple Touch was the best with its large sides for holding and thick design with a curved back for your fingers. The mentality to create the thinnest and narrowest edge e-reader is some kind of thoughtless endeavor to create a technological marvel without any thought to the real contributors to the user-experience.

A smart-phone like the iPhone can be thin because you can wrap your palm around the whole thing, but larger devices like e-ink need to be thick so you can easily hold with one hand and the edges need to be wide, not narrow.

So, what do I suggest?

Overdrive should make an e-ink reader! Or, somebody should make one that works with their service for that purpose. (and it should have the physical design factors I mentioned. It would sad if they made it thin and narrow; failure again)

None of the current e-ink readers can access overdrive libraries directly.

Your overdrive e-ink reader would allow you to add all the overdrive libraries you belong to and read and mange books from there directly.

The second part of this is on the content side. Overdrive should facilitate businesses creating paid membership libraries!

Now you could have niche libraries by interest or genre! You could have general libraries or any mix in-between. Imagine a library you could belong to that specialized in science fiction, non-fiction history or anything any number of interests or mixes tailored to your preferences.

These overdrive franchise libraries could become very popular. So far there are only a dozen or so overdrive pay membership libraries which are just public libraries that sell out of state membership.

The thing holding paid membership libraries back is the lack of niche selection. Chances are there are a few types of books a person likes to read a belonging to a library with lots of books tailored to those interest would fit the demand of a customer much better than the general-purpose spotty selection you see with the public libraries today. Or, who knows, maybe general-purpose libraries could add much larger selections with the paid membership revenue and the right price.

Your thoughts? I know I'm right.