Esecallum:
To elaborate a little, there are "work arounds" for what you want. I'm assuming that low cost is your primary concern.
Two options spring to mind:
1) Rasterbook allows you to convert text files to a series of picture files (jpg I believe), which can then be loaded onto a datacard that you can slip into your picture viewer. (Most digital picture viewers do accept some type of datacard.)
You read the book by moving from one picture file to the next--just like turning a page. The biggest challenge is picking the correct screen/pixel size.
This technique also works on not-so-smart phones with picture viewers.
Get Rasterbook at:
http://a-i-studio.com/rasterbook/
This was originally noted at the BooksforaBuck.com site; thanks to Nick Preece for pointing this out:
http://www.booksforabuck.com/writers...one-ebook.html
http://www.booksforabuck.com/writers/creative_zen.html
I don't think spending three minutes to convert a book is a big deal considering that you will most likely spend hours reading it, but to each his own. *shrugs*
2) Get a cheap mp4 player. No-name knockoffs that mimic the form of the IPod Touch can be had for $20-30 on Ebay. They plays mp3s, mp4 videos, have picture viewers and many of the newer units have built-in plain text readers. Screen size is small, normally about 2.5" diagonal.
Again, you're better off getting a unit that can accept a memory card, but it is fairly straightforward to load files on most units--just plug into your PC via USB cable. Your PC should see the device as just another USB drive. Drag the files across to the player.
Even without a text reader, you can still use (Rasterbook) to produce picture files to read and load them into the picture viewer directories on the device.
This is one of the things I'm most excited about when it comes to ereaders: Very cheap ebook readers are HERE if you're willing to do a little legwork and accept some compromises. As technology continues its relentless pace of improvement, I expect this will become a much more viable option for people on a limited budget.
I also find the wikireader intriguing. I suspect we'll see an ebook hack appear about three seconds after the reader is released into the wild.
I'm surprised that the ebook community has not made a bigger deal about this. We should be trumpeting "Ebook readers for $20" from the rooftops.
This approach is a lot more likely to be adopted by teens and those on limited budgets--most people in that age group would snort Monster energy drink out their nose at the suggestion that they should run out and spend $200 on a Kindle or Sony reader. (Although quite a few have netbooks.)
Of course, maybe the reason it's not being promoted is that the only people who benefit from this functionality are publishers. The device manufacturers throw the ebook reader on as a "here's a little something extra," a throwaway.
But the very same publishers who could sell ebooks to millions of people with portable media players are paralyzed about selling non-DRMd books in an open format like plain text...and so they lose out on a HUGE potential market.