For years I've considered purchasing an e-ink-based reading device but couldn't quite bring myself to spend the money when I have other ways to do it. This may partially be due to never getting over how quickly my old e-ink Kindle died (lasted less than a year) and how disappointing that was as I really loved using it.
This time around I discovered that there's a whole new class of devices that combine both reading and writing. I've known of one or two devices like this but I didn't realize how many choices have come to market since the last time I looked into it.
Since a device like this would seriously streamline my workflow I decided to take the plunge and invest in one of these devices. After mulling over the options (and doing a lot of reading) I settled on the BOOX Note Air 2.
While I'm waiting for it to arrive I decided to look into what alternatives there are to Amazon for sources of new books. In particular I'm interested in places that offer books in PDF or other non-DRM formats, but I accept that it's not always going to be possible to avoid DRM.
So far I've found a couple interesting options. I'll share what I've found here, and update the post as I discover more and have more experience with the sources listed here.
ebooks.com
This one seemed so obvious that I was surprised that it's actually pretty great. I haven't purchased a book from them yet, but the selection is good and I'm particularly excited about the fact that they encourage authors to publish without DRM. Another noteworthy feature is that they sell DRM-free versions of O'Reilly books (which O'Reilly no longer does).
MIT Open Access Articles
DSpace@MIT hosts a collection of articles that are avaliable for free.