I have been over seas for an extended period for work and bought a Kobo before leaving. I really liked it, especially since most of my reading is out in the sun. Alas, I learned the fragility of these things when I forgot it in my pocket (in a semi-hard case) and went crawling briefly. Cracked screen forced me to get a replacement and I decided to give the 3G Kindle a go. It also was great to read from and the free internet connection anywhere was fantastic with a quite reasonable (for what it is), though not optimum, web browser. I was quite upset when this screen also cracked (in a different semi-rigid case) seeing as how I was now paranoid about breaking it so took extreme care. Just picked it up one day and it was broken.
Having limited access to anything I then managed to pick up an Archos Arnova 10 Android tablet. It was relatively cheap, and I now know why (frustrating beyond belief to use). It does reasonable service as an e-reader once you download other software, although only indoors/at night. Unreadable in the sun.
All in all, when I get back, despite my experiences, I will be getting another e-reader (maybe Amazon will replace this one). I greatly prefer them to paper books. Much lighter, easier to hold, carry, and store. Although I understand the attachment to the solid item, I do not share it. The paper copy now is really only good for lending to others (or for when the technology lets me down, as it always seems to
).
Haven't had a chance for library lending, but my neighbor borrowed tons for her Kobo and she was quite happy with her experiences. Not sure if we have kindle format stuff up north yet, but I know that Calibre can convert epub to kindle easily enough (not sure how library files work, however).
