Electronic book reader?

I've just got back from a seven week stint in Australia and New Zealand. I left two books in Tasmania, but still managed to come back with eight books in my luggage. Books are big and heavy and I'm sick of carting them around the world watching them get damaged.

It's time for me to get an electronic book reader. I've resisted for a while because books are not only big and heavy, they are also wonderful and mysterious and almost sacred. Benny once told me that the physical book is the frame for the actual book, much like a bottle is the frame for wine. In both cases, the container has its own beauty, separate from but related to the thing inside that gladdens and warms the heart.

Also, I cannot abide [DRM](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_rights_management) for books.

Which electronic book reader should I get? I would love to hear your recommendations. The single essential is that I must be able to load it with non-DRMed books in open formats (PDF, text, HTML).