[Boston]

First thoughts after reading with this for a week:

I immediately fell in love with its slim form factor. Holding the Sony, brought to life why others so harshly criticize the Kindle 1 as clunky and horrible (something I thought was exaggerated as it never bothered me). My Kindle 1 does look like a clunky toy next to the slim Sony.

When I first started reading on the Sony, three things bothered me enormously:
- Page turning - while the K1 was often criticized for the ease of accidental page turns, I never found this to be a real problem. I found that the small page turn keys on the Sony limited how I could hold the device and often hard to press because I have longer fingernails). I was able to adjust when reading in an upright position but still find reading while laying in bed awkward. Page refreshes also seem much more noticeable (but I think its because I am not firmly depressing the buttons).
- Fonts - With only 3 font sizes available, I found it harder to adjust to the Sony. Again, I was able to adjust although none of the font sizes reflect my natural preference. My Kindle has been instrumental in my ability to deny the need for reading glasses.
- PDF rendering was more distracting than I thought (I bought the Sony primarily so I could read ePub and pdf books without converting).

At first, I thought that getting the Sony was a big mistake but as I am getting used to it, so I decided to give it a fair shake by putting my Kindle aside for a week.

Happily, I find it will work fine for my intended purpose - a second reader to supplement my Kindle. I do love having page numbers and the idea of folders (although I haven't used it yet). The biggest reasons for staying with the Kindle as my primary reader are Whispernet (I like the NY Times News Updates and samples), ease of buying from Amazon and the ability to share books with my mom. But I can see why each reader has its own fans and why some think one is clearly is better than the other. For me, each has its benefits and I'm glad to have both until the perfect reader for me comes out.

Questions for other Sony owners:

Since I don't plan to buy from the Sony store and have Calibre, is there any reason I need to install the library software and/or register the unit with Sony?

I was going to stick with the original cover but have read warnings here not to. How much bulk does the M-Edge cover add? Since one of the things I love most is the slim form factor so I'm hesitant to add a cover that will make it more like a Kindle.

What do you press to <escape> when you press a function accidentally? I find the Page __ prompt occasionally pops up and I lose my place.