That is what I had planned to do, but after downloading the first book onto the sd card, the next time I put it into the computer it wouldn't recognize it. I don't have an sd cardreader, but my laptop has one built in. Maybe a cardreader would have recognized it and I could have downloaded the books without connecting the reader to the usb port. This was the only way it would work yesterday.
My jbl seems to be working okay now, so I think hubby wants to keep it and see what happens. I know that I have spent more than $130 in my lifetime that I have nothing to show for so guess we'll take the chance. When I reinstalled the batteries it basically reset itself (went through all the screens that it originally did when I first installed the batteries). After that it has been working fine. I guess if it does it again I will try removing the batteries and let it reset itself again. I love the small size of the jbl (even though I am not the one reading it). Much handier to take somewhere than my Kindle1.