[Derf]

Originally Posted by Cleophauna

After much deliberation I finally ordered the Clara HD.

Congrats on a fine choice. I love mine!

... as my Gramma used to say "Use it up, wear it out, make it do, or do with out"

I like that expression!

Originally Posted by koboy

i'd convert 1 book from epub to kepub and then you can try both and decide which YOU prefer.

That's a good suggestion. Some prefer the ligatures and Kerning of ePub, other's prefer the reading stats and features of KEPUB. I actually prefer to use the Calibre plugin Kobo Extended Driver to convert my ePub files to KePub on the fly when sideloading onto Kobo. I think Kobo works a little better with KEPUB, offering a few niceties over ePub, but for non-english speakers ePub may look better.

Originally Posted by Cleophauna

I don't want to have to do acrobatics to get any book I choose on my device. I dislike proprietary equipment. I know you can sideload on just about any device, but, like I said I don't like having to do the file acrobatics. I would never buy a Kindle for that reason. Calibre does help, but, IMO you shouldn't limited to only 1 format.

I actually felt the same way, which helped sway me towards the Kobo. What I didn't realize at the time was that you can sideload on Kindle in AZW or Mobi format. I thought you could only read Amazon purchased books on a Kindle.

50% of all eBook sales come from Amazon, so if you buy ebooks from Amazon and read on an alternate company's device, you'll need to perform the file acrobatics; at the very least you'll need to download the books to a computer first, and possibly de-DRM'ed and converted to another file format, to load them onto your alternate device.

On the other hand, if you have a large ebook library already, esp. in the open ePub format, a Kobo looks better than a Kindle since it can already handle that format.

The argument seems to be more about your preference to avoid buying on Amazon than to avoid Kindle and file acrobatics. But in any case, Calibre does help.

Originally Posted by azayn

Good choice! I came close to buying the Clara myself when I upgraded from my Nook ST, but ended up going with the Oasis due to the larger screen.

While the Nook ST and the Clara might be in the same league, the Oasis and the Clara are not at all. One is an 'entry level' eReader, and the other is a top-tier eReader. The waterproofing, bigger screen, and bluetooth support for Audible make it a different animal from the Clara. The price tag alone of the Oasis is worth about 2X Clara's. It's like someone saying I considered the Toyota Camry as an upgrade from my Honda Civic, but decided on the BMW X5 instead! I'm not sure why you consider it a good choice, considering you decided not to buy it.

However, if you were considering a Kobo Clara, I'm curious why you didn't also consider a Kobo Aura H2O for the bigger screen and waterproofing for $50 more, and decided to go with the Kindle Oasis for $120 more?