The big problem with e-books is not technology but law - specifically, the DMCA. Unless those Amazon books are unencrypted, which is doubtful, they will be in a proprietary format. Then, when the Kindle bites the dust, all those books will disappear. So which one would you rather buy - a paperback that you can keep for the rest of your life, or an electronic file that will be useless and unreadable in 3 years?

I have about $100 invested in e-books that are only readable on my PalmPilot. I cannot transfer them to any other device (including the Kindle), print them out, or decrypt them. How long will the PalmOS continue to be maintained? Will these books be forward-compatible? God only knows.

I have a Sony E-Reader and I think it's the greatest thing since sliced bread. I travel about 75k miles a year on planes due to my job and the E-reader keeps me sane. It's not a replacement for a book, it's a replacement for a whole stack of books. It liberates you from the mediocre selection of airport gift shops and needlessly bulky carryon bags. I keep about 80 paperbacks in my purse at all times.

E-books aren't perfect yet, but for hardcore travelers, they're darn near it.

Of course, if it looked a little more like an iPod and less like a copy machine from the 1980s, I might believe it could take off. iPods did so because of their function, but also because of their form. They were just beautiful, and everyone had to have one. I can't imagine anyone coveting the Kindle if it looks like that. In fact, though it might be shallow, I can't imagine anybody wanting to be seen with that. Much of the appeal of new gadgets is the "ooh-it's-a-new-gadget" factor. This looks like a piece of old, broken down, boring office equipment that we have all grown to hate in our years at desk jobs, something that most people would rather destroy, à la "Office Space", than purchase.

I will never think staring at a light source for hours at a time is a good idea. I already have to stare at one all day at work, a book is goddamn relief. Plus I like that I can squish my books practically anywhere, I don't worry about sand or water or coffee getting on it. I don't have to be careful with a book. Plus if I accidentally leave it somewhere I wont freak out that I"ve just lost a 400 dollar item. No I've just lost something that cost me 2.50 at a used book store. Then there is the just the different fonts used that add character. There is plenty of fonts that just are not good for reading on an electronic screen and I find I more easily forget what I've read on a screen.

Plus I like leaving books around for others when I'm done with it(unless it's a book I love and will re-read) I find the apartment sharing of books to be lots of fun. They leave theirs, I leave mine and it's like a little library of tastes of people you don't know. So not only do you have new books, but you have a little mystery of who likes these books. Are they good, do they look like college class books they couldn't sell back, hey this person has near identical taste as me.

The only thing on the side of the e-book is the paper saving aspect, and for people who travel and read fast.

I would love to subscribe to newspapers this way. You could buy a subscription service, perhaps one that allowed you to choose from any of 3 or 4 newspapers each day. Hook the ebook up to the internet at bedtime, and in the morning your local paper and the LA Times are loaded and ready.

Ebooks have the potential to create entirely new distribution methods for print. Amazon already has an online service where you can buy short stories for 49 cents. One of the problems with short works, like essays, poems, and short stories, is that you either have to buy a whole magazine or a whole book to get a single story. Stephen King could clean up if he made all his short stories available for 49 cents a pop.

Ebooks could also resurrect the serial. A writer could release a story online in small increments. Readers could subscribe to the whole series or buy one section at a time.

Writers would profit because they could sell their work and collect a higher percentage of the royalties. No distribution costs. It might hurt big publishing houses somewhat, but it would get publishers back to doing what they are supposed to be doing -- consulting with writers to produce better writing, instead of promotion, which most serious writers are suspicious of anyway.

All we need is a decent delivery system.

I love the idea, and enjoyed reading on my Palm back in the day as well. But I had the Palm for other reasons, so really the opportunity to read from my Palm didn't cost anything extra. Enter the Reader or the Kindle. At three figures for the device which probably weighs as much as a paperback, and then the cost of the titles as well, you'd have to be a very prolific reader to make it worthwhile. The advantage for the that reader is the space and environment savings of having a library of books, but for the average Joe, who might read two or three books a year the device is excessive.

And if the Kindle looks like that... I'd rather go with Sony's reader, or in the end, a tablet PC that has all the benefits of a PC as well as a screen that's twice as big and backlit for reading in the dark.

The iPod is a way to take more music (a lot more) on the go with you. It isn't a new way to listen to music. I grew up using walkmans and discmans, so the iPod just felt like a natural progression. Plus, I can rip all my old cds and lps to listen to on my iPod. Try and do that with your treasured copy of LOTR. E-books are a whole new thing. Not only do you have to shell out hundreds of dollars up front, you then have to select from a relatively small number of titles that skew heavily towards the bestsellers to fill it up. Then, you have to read from a screen, the same thing I do all day at my desk. No thanks. I'd rather curl up with a book, read a book on the train, anything but reading from a screen. Besides, I'd be very nervous trying to read this thing in the tub.

I can see the appeal to people who travel constantly for business, but it just doesn't seem to make much sense for the rest of us.