[Elfwreck]

Some very basic info:

1) There are thousands of free ebook sites on the web. Most of them have mostly public domain classics, but there are also plenty with Creative Commons releases, and fully copyrighted works that have been offered for free.

2) You don't need a dedicated device to read ebooks. All of the formats available for ebooks, except a couple of *really* archaic and weird ones, are readable on your computer; I believe they're all readable with free software.

3) The most common ebook types are PDF, ePub, Mobi/PRC, and (eReader) PDB. (That is, if you don't count TXT, RTF and HTML, which weren't created specifically for books.) Less-common include LIT, LRF, FB2, RB, IMP, and FUB. No, you don't need to remember all of those. But you should be wary of any site that talks about "ebooks" but doesn't mention formats.

4) PDF is by far the most common, but is also one of the most troublesome, because it's set for a particular page size, which means if your reader isn't the same size & shape, it can be hard to read. No dedicated ebook reader is great at dealing with PDFs; they're all a matter of compromise about which features matter most to you. This is not a problem with the readers, but with the PDFs, which are generally designed for print, not for reading on a screen.

5) Converting from one format to another ranges from "very simple" to "impossible," depending on technical details. "Impossible" is very rare, but "complicated, with requirement of installing special software" is not.

6) The most obvious differences between multifunction devices and dedicated ebook readers are (a) battery life and (2) screen quality. Do some research to find out how much those matter to you before making a decision. Expect any details written by the manufacturer to be exaggerated, and sometimes slightly inaccurate. (For example, most manufacturer's lists of supported filetypes are somewhat off; they'll say "supports Ebook Type X" when what they mean is "...with our free software that you'll have to install on every computer you use with our device.")

7) The more specific info you can give, the better answers you'll get. Ask lots of questions; we like talking about ebooks.

8) There are controversies about, hm, everything. Filetypes, best devices, worst customer service, legality/ethics of some ebook practices, history of books in general, corporate activities, etc. Don't worry if you get caught up in those; look for the info you need & ignore the drama. Unless you like drama, in which case, the keywords "copyright law" can cause rather large explosions with very little warning.