Well,

it depends...

I'm using GLCD's on several projects.

If you are willing to write your own driver and you can afford the code overhead to drive a GLCD this might be an option:

A NOKIA 7110 LCD would give 8 lines with 16 chars each.
And they are really cheap (less than any backlit character display).

Many other NOKIA LCDs (3310 or other) would do.
(if you can afford the code overhead)