I don't mean to dismiss your question; but if you do a search or just browse through the postings here, you'll find the recommendations you're seeking -- and learn quite a lot in the process (as I did).

For me, the two essential programs were FBReader to read ebooks, and MediaStreamer to stream content from my PC. (You'll also need to install a UPnP server like TVersity on your PC to perform the streaming.)

I also patched my 2006 OS with the bus speed-up patch from http://fanoush.wz.cz/maemo/#mmcplus when I got my 2gb MobileMMC card.