[Touch Pro2, Tilt 2 Themes and Apps] fortunz:
I began to do the majority of my pleasure reading (commercial non-fiction books were in very short supply back then) on my Palm m500 back in 2003, and now I do the vast majority of all my reading on handhelds. The biggest advantage back then was never having to choose what book to carry around with me -- I could take my entire library on an SD card. The next biggest advantage was the backlight -- I experienced a dramatic reduction in eyestrain for night reading. I now purchase 2 or 3 paper books a year, and 30-40 ebooks a year.

I think e-ink is the most over-rated screen tech in existence. Once Pixel Qi ends up in a decent tablet, I might get one of those. But spending $200 on a device that is so limited, can't have a real backlight (ah the "joys" of having to lug around a friggin booklight) for night reading, and most of the cost is in the screen is insane. Especially when you can get most of the same benefits out of a cheap LCD (adding only some reflective layer tech) while preserving other media tasks like video. Until then, my TP2 is my primary reading device.

Book form

I hadn't anticipated this little advantage before I bought a TP2, but I'm becoming attached to it. When reading, I typically hold it in what I now consider to be book form (a little Nintendo DS terminology). Keyboard out, screen slightly tilted, index finger in gap between back of screen and base of device, leaving my thumb to rest right on the device's arrow keys, software used to keep the screen in portrait mode even though the kb is out.

For me, this particular form means easy page-turning and one handed reading while laying down before I go to sleep. Previously I tried assigning the volume slider for page turning, but found it not entirely comfortable. I assigned one of the lower face keys to page turn, but that wasn't any more comfortable than screen tapping (errant screen taps in both my reading applications also potentially bring up menus, which I find annoying).

If you have software that allows you to rotate the screen 180* or 90* (as Rhodium Keyboard Controller allows you to do manually), you can switch to the left hand if you like as well. You'd need to assign another key for page-turning on the opposite end of the keyboard, but RKC will allow you to assign letters to "up" and "down" for that application only, so it wouldn't affect usage outside your preferred reader application.

Software:

I've been using eReader (owned by B&N, managed by fictionwise, formerly palm digital media and peanut press) for 7 years, as that was my initial source of books. But when I switch to windows mobile, I hated the changes they made to their application and how much space WinMo's top and bottom bars took up (especially in widescreen mode). I instantly began requesting feature changes to it, but I doubt they'll ever get anywhere. WinMo isn't the hottest platform and they originally dev'd this one years and years ago.

I used Freda almost exclusively until upgrading to XDAndroid. Originally I just got it for some free sources like the baen free library, that use epub since Freda is one of only two epub readers on the market. But the full screen mode is so fantastic I've decided to go all in.

Now I use Moon+ reader, which still allows me to go fullscreen, choose a black background with green text, lock the screen in portrait and has a wide variety of other customization options. I do believe the TP2 is the best ereader using Android.

Color scheme

One thing I sort of liked about eReader for WinMo was that it allowed you to use textures as a background. They had pre-made marble and papery background images you could use. But when I start using Freda and had access to the full screen mode, I began experimenting with other plainer themes. I accidentally tried a black background with a sharp green text, and suddenly it was like I was reading on my old m500 again.

The advantages to this, especially for night time reading in fullscreen mode, are that 1) I've got a lot less white or whitish light pouring into my eyes making them uncomfortable 2) I can achieve better visibility for low light reading with a lower backlight level meaning I get longer battery life and 3) I'm comfortable reading smaller fonts with this particular setup than I was with lighter backgrounds (though I don't entirely understand why), meaning less frequent page turning.

You can do this with any reader, but doing so in the winmo ereader app kinda sucked some of the advantages out of it because there's no fullscreen mode, so I still had white light pouring off the top and bottom bars.

Extras

I use GSPlayer while I read, mainly because it has a sleep timer (I'll probably upgrade to microfi-nitrogen someday). So at night, I do my reading, then just as my eyes are feeling tired enough to sleep, I flip over to GSP and turn off the display, and then fall asleep to the relaxing mp3 of my choice. My TP2 is the last thing I use at night, and with G-Alarm, it's also the first thing I use in the morning. On XDAndroid, Mortplayer fills in for GSP.

What about you?

Do you eread with your TP2? How much and when? What's your software, book source, preferred colors and fonts? Widescreen, portrait, do you use book form? Do you page turn with keys or screen taps?

eReading is one of my primary mobile computing tasks, and has been for years. I think the TP2 is about the perfect mobile device for it at the moment (about the only thing better would be a TP2 + an HD2 sized screen... with Pixel Qi), but I haven't noticed a ton of people here talking about it. I'd love to hear from other big ereaders on their methods.