Interesting, I had a 500 until it broke. Now I am looking to buy a new reader and i'm leaning heavily towards a Kindle 2. This thread only makes me want to buy a Kindle even more
People always mention the speed of the 500, and while it was my only reader, I never really had any problems with it. It will be interesting to see how much of a difference I see when I finally get around to getting a new reader.