Ok, so the roommate has a Shift3 LookBook, which is supposed to be quite similar to the Literati. Similar enough that I'm beginning to think it may be the same hardware.
Comparison here. Anyway, if that's the case, those of you who can't get it to be recognized by the computer may be making the same mistake he was when he tried it. It turns out that the computer won't have any idea what to do with it (though it recognizes that something is plugged in) until you turn the reader on. It may be worth a try. No, I don't think Shift3 mentions this requirement in the manual either.
Chris