Lilac, cassidym, Alphapheemail, hing and GraceKrispy, thanks to all for your warm welcomes.
I've had my Sony 505 for a week now. Lovin it so far! I've actually been researching this for months and also waiting to see how various products would pan out (such as K2). I didn't realize there were so many 505 owners here at MR until after I arrived at the same smart decision and started gravitating to that forum.
But seriously, as others have said, it comes down to what you're looking for in a reader and often making some compromises. Given the current state of technology, I'd like to own 2 or 3 different readers.
Truth is, there are lots of brilliant choices and owners of ebook readers are just a smart population in general.