[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Psykhe

Occur - yes. But "easily"?

Unless you are really clumsy chances that you break your reader that way are pretty low. The scenario you describe can also be applied on another household good which is if anything more breakable than a reader - Dishes. How many dishes did you break in the last years during normal handling?

For me in the last 4 years this number is zero. I broke two, but both not during normal handling, but because they slipped out of my towel when I was drying them. So I do not think that is a danger high enough to make a cover anywhere near a "must have".

How many times do you take a dish out of the house? How many times do you put your dishes in places where you can easy put something heavy on it? How any times do you put a dish in a bag (with other stuff) and take it out of the house. Most people use their Reader in a way they do not with dishes. So comparing dishes to Readers is rather silly.

Speaking of readers, personally in the last 4 years my reader never ever fell off somewhere when I put it down after reading. Once it fell down before reading, though. It was a short throw of it on my bed and it bounced off that badly that it went to the floor. No damage though despite it being totally naked. Needless to say I do not make such stunts with it anymore.

You were lucky. If your Reader had broken, would you be using a case now?

So I would overall call the chance of a reader breaking without cover as hugely overstated.

I can tell you, I've read of more people breaking a naked Reade then a Reader in a case, This is not overstated.

[And let's not forget that as crossi said Covers do not grow on trees.

But crossie is talking about a specialized $75 case. You don't have to spend that much on a case. So I don't think that counts.

Even if I would break on average a reader every 2 years due to not using a cover I could get a replacement (meaning a 2 year old used reader of the same model from ebay) for about the same price as the cover would cost me (~$40).

But would you really want to buy a 2-year old Reader with a battery that could be on it's way out?

Indeed. Which is exactly why making a blanket statement like "it is foolish to use a reader without cover" is ridiculous.
Not because it is "an opinion" but because it is a blanket statement. The only blanket statement which is generally correct is "My situation is not the same as that of everyone else.".

Read above about more people breaking naked Readers and you'll see it is not ridiculous.