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Originally Posted by BKWRM
I've put off buying an eReader because I could always find the books I wanted used for cheaper than the price of an eBook, however now it's just not practical to have so many physical books in my possession. However I want to keep my overall reading costs down.
Any suggestions appreciated.
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If you live in the United States and your local library uses Overdrive, you can't hardly go wrong with a refurbished Kindle Basic (8th Generation, $60) or, if you want a front-lit reader, a refurbished Kindle Paperwhite ($100). With the new "load your own font" and font bolding features, Kindles have become (in my opinion) much nicer readers. In a pinch I can actually log on to my library and set up a loan on Overdrive directly from my Kindle (though it's much easier to do it from a computer). I've borrowed a lot of books from my library – most didn't require the waiting list at all, but I'm not usually borrowing newly published books.
If you've got a Windows or Mac computer (I run Linux) and don't mind using Adobe ADE, you could look into a Kobo reader (like the new Clara – or find factory refurbished models on eBay) for borrowing books on Overdrive. Kobos are more flexible and there are folks here who swear by them (I've got a couple of the older models and like them.)
You can also buy used Readers on eBay or ShopGoodwill.com. I can still download Overdrive books directly to my Sony PRS-T2 using ePub Overdrive (bypassing the Adobe ADE on you computer requirement). I don't think this can be done with the T1 any more, so it would probably have to be the T2 or T3. Good, used Kobos, Kindles, Nooks and Sonys can be bought on on Shop Goodwill for about $20. You're not going to get lighted screens or the newer models for that, but you can get a functional eReader.
Whatever eReader you settle on, you'll want to download and use Calibre and add the DeDRM utilities from Alph. This allows you to purchase, or in the case of public domain books, download and convert to whatever format you want. It also allows you to embed the fonts you like.
Anyhow, good luck. Sorry to ramble. It's a big subject and it's hard to tell what would suit you best, especially not knowing what country you live in.