[hermance]

Please forgive the length of my post. I am new to this and am really searching for feedback:

I’m an academic, interested in hearing from others about what e-reading device is useful for them, particularly for work. I can see a lot of reasons why an e-reader would be fantastic. The idea of being able to travel and work without having to lug an extra 5-10 pounds of books (and figure out *which* 5-10 pounds of books I’ll use at any given time) is so alluring. In addition, it’s amazing to think about being at a conference or archive and have easy access to a source I didn’t even know I might need access to. To be able to pull it up on a reader would be so helpful.

I'm sufficiently tech-savvy, but I really don't have the time or the curiosity to convert a whole bunch of file types or learn to hack devices or to strip DRM. And this is what makes it hard for me to figure out which to buy. I really don't want to have to learn a whole new technology to take advantage of an e-reader.

Here's what I'd like to be able to read, in order of priority:
(1) Public domain books that are out of print and not available from my university's rather small library. Currently, I save most of these books to my laptop via Google Books. It'd be great to have access to them without needing to lug my whole laptop around.
(2) Academic journal articles. I get most of these in PDF or HTML format. Does anyone know about remote access to databases via the wifi capability on e-readers?
(3) Fiction for pleasure. I imagine this would be a mix of new books available via Amazon (or other ebook retailer/site) and public domain books.
(4) Mass market periodicals—probably only free content.

Here are some of my usage concerns:
(1) Searching is really important, which may altogether eliminate the Sony 505.
(2) I’m moderately interested in being able to annotate and underline. However, I'm not sure how much I would use such features because it just doesn’t seem like a very efficient way to annotate. Anyone care to weigh in on this?
(3) I want it to be easy to transfer and read PDF files, especially since I predict that most of my e-reader content will be from Google Books and PDFs of journal articles.
(4) I’d love to be able to access my Zotero library through the e-reader but am not sure how practicable that is.

The biggest advantage to me is not having to figure out which books I’ll want to work with while I’m away. However, I also am intrigued by the idea that I might be able to travel without books *or* a laptop, especially for conferences when I will not primarily be working at a computer much.

I’ve considered just getting an iPod Touch for now but worry that the LCD screen is too small and headache-inducing for “serious” reading. It seems that the people who like reading on iPod devices are warrior-travel types, who spend a lot of time on various planes, trains, and automobiles. I don’t have a long commute and only travel about once every 6 weeks. The appeal to me of an e-reader is the ability to have access to lots of content, not for the ability to read when I have some down time here and there. That said, I don’t have a smart phone or PDA, so I might be willing to sacrifice the optimum e-reading experience in order to have such functionality built into one device. (But I worry that I really won't read that much on the Touch and that I'll be hesitant to store too much reading material on it, which takes away from what I am really looking for in an e-reader.) I'd be really interested in hearing from academics with iPhones or iTouches.

Kindle—not sure whether the 2 or the DX would be right. I’d like a smaller size, but if I understand correctly, the DX is the device for PDFs.

Sony reader—I had thought that I wanted the 505 because of its usability, but the lack of searchability is, I think, a deal-breaker for me. I’ve heard enough mixed reviews of the 700 that I’m not sure it’s a good choice, either.

I’ve thought about just getting an iPod Touch for now and waiting another year or so until the e-readers improve even more. I could buy both a Touch and a reader, but I am really not that gadget-loving of a person to justify those kinds of costs. It seems like for me it would be overkill.

I suppose I’m frustrated because the academic market seems like an obvious, albeit limited, target, and yet it’s been hard to get a sense of how any of these devices would meet our professional needs. I’d love any advice that anyone could offer.

Thanks for reading all of this mess.