Well the "don't charge it 'till it's dead" thing primarily applies to NiCad batteries (nasty beasts, those are).
The Reader has a LiIon (Lithium-Ion) battery, and there has been some lively discussion 'round here about how to deal with them. From my impressions, the minority opinion seems to be that they should be discharged periodically. And the Majority opinion seems to be that discharging actually shortens their life, and they should be kept topped off.
If you'll run a search of the forum for "Battery Charging" you'll find several threads that have discussed it -- there are some links in them to outside 'authorites' on the subject, so you can get the straight dope on it.
