I love to read myself to sleep, but often end up dropping the book on the floor when I doze off. Could it withstand this? Also, the few times I have tried to have my computer next to the bed to check some thing in the middle of the night, I find I have problems reading the screen sideways, a problem I don't have with books. I suppose being able to hold it at any angle would solve this problem? Is there any advantage to having one if almost all the books I read are borrowed from the library?
The device I have weighs slightly more than a paperback book. You can hold it at any comfortable angle. There's a function to turn the text 180 degrees, so you can hold it with either hand and still use the page up and down buttons (it reverses their operation, too). I haven't dropped it yet, but it seems solidly built, and I imagine it could easily withstand a fall from the bed to the carpeted floor.
If I could check out books from the library and download them to this device, it would be absolutely perfect. I know my local library has ebooks that can be checked out, but their selection is very limited, and they are in a format that's incompatible with my device. There is third-party software that will convert various formats to the one used by my device, but results are not always the best, and it's a pain having to do that anyway.