As I travel a lot by air I would find it very convenient to have books available to me without having to carry their weight, but I would never buy a Kindle as I have heard that books that have been purchased have been deleted from owner's units. This is incredible, if true, as you have purchased the product as much as if you bought the paper book.
I am interested in the Sony or the Iliad from iRex through Dymocks.
I definitely won't be getting rid of my six bookcases full of books on all topics that I have collected over the last 30 years. Whenever I have got rid of some to make room for others I have always regretted it.

Hehehe,

nah, not weak, just human

The new ereader that was just released by Barnes & Noble is, in my opinion, a far superior product to the Kindle. I had the opportunity to test one in my local store, and I was quite impressed. The B&N product has a larger screen and buttons. For those of us with large hands this is a huge plus. I love the term reviewers use ... "superior ease of functionality".

Here is a link to a PC Magazine slide show, that allows you to walk through the steps to use the B&N eReader

I understand the appeal of any eReader to the business user, but I will stay with books.

Why would it have to be an either-or proposition? I think I would really enjoy having a variety of books with me when I travel, without having to lug them around. Plus, as a translator, having resources like dictionaries that I can carry around without getting a hernia would be a boon. But for reading at home in bed or for enjoying feel, smell and experience of books, I wouldn't ever give that up. I think it would be great to have both.

I've had a Kindle for awhile now. The first one that came out and then the K2.

I have to say, it took a little while to get used to because I thought that honestly, nothing would replace a book. However, once I started using it I was in love. I feel weird going back to books.

I enjoy getting my books instantly. Especially, when I'm reading something part of a series. If I finish one all I can think about is running out and getting the next book. With the Kindle I don't have to. I just download the next one. Two seconds later I'm reading. Not to mention they are cheaper than the books at the bookstore.

I'm also part of paperbackswap and as much as I swap books to save money, its just so easy to use the Kindle.

That and I already have a room full of books and not much room for more. This allows me to buy as many as I want without the storage problem.

I really love my Kindle.

Don't want one.. as others have said.. books are an essential part of my decor.
I am not able to read when I travel, so it would be of no use to me there.
My sister (much more gadget minded than I am ) has one, but to be honest, I can't see the point.

I can see the practical applications but it won't replace real books for me. What if I want to loan a mate a book? Can they put it onto their kindle or do I have to forgo my kindle until I get it back? The worst thought is being a clumsy clod sometimes, what's going to happen if I drop it and smash it? All my "books" will be unreadable. What happens if you drop it in the bath? Nah.. if I drop one real book in the bath I ruin that book and not the whole collection. I hope to build a new house this year and surrounding one window in the sitting room will be bookshelves. A kindle would look silly on a mass of bookshelves

Love my Kindle! I find I read so much more now that I have one. I keep it in my purse, and whenever I have some downtime, I take it out. You turn it on, and it picks up right where you left off. Very sweet! I just love having my library with me!

Tizzabelle, all of your books are also stored on Amazon, so if anything happens to the Kindle, you can recover them.

I still buy actual books, but I'm much more selective -- I only buy ones that I know I'll want to keep for years and use as decor, as tezza said.

I still think I'd end up smashing it or dropping it in the sink, the bath or pouring a drink over it. I do love the practicality of the idea but I think it'll be while until I get one to try out.

I prefer reading the actual book for sure, but kindles work. I think they're better than listening to a book.

I would much rather read an actual book. The smell, the feel, the everything! Anybody who has one, is it difficult to read in the sun? I know there's not backlight or something so it's easier to read, but I don't know-- I think I would rather just read a book. Plus I highlight like crazy and just find it easier to get submerged into a book than when reading online. Or if I take a bath, sometimes I like to read while doing so, and with a Kindle, I don't think that would be such a good idea.

Ok, I finally get to weigh in on this subject. I wasn't sure at first even what Kindle was. Now that I have a cell phone that has Kindle on it, I downloaded a book that I've been wanting and I found that I love it. Since the screen is fairly small and doesn't put out much light, I can read at night in bed without bothering hubby and I have found that I am reading more. I still enjoy a book in paperback or hardback, but I am loving my Kindle.

A week ago I would have said I'd never want to own a kindle - like copago and a few others have mentioned I love the weight, feel and SMELL of a book (the smell of a new book though, not one from a dirty second-hand shop!).

Funnily, just in the last couple of days, I've been looking up kindles and reckon I'm just a few days away from buying one. Apparently this new model being introduced in Europe means you don't even need to be in a wifi zone to download a book!

As someone else said, it doesn't have to be 'either/or'. In the last few years I've started buying quite a few books from the Folio Society ... beautiful books, goatskin spines, great 'smelly' paper, gold edging, fabulous illustrations ... and nothing will ever replace the pleasure of reading them. But I'm certainly not going to take them to the beach, by the pool, on a bus, or even on a plane.... I would take a kindle there though.

I think there's room for both ... even for an incorrigible luddite like me.

i just ordered one.

ahhhhh ... nice one, Sinned. You'll have to give us a review when it comes in!

If anyone's interested, you can download (for free) Kindle for PC, and Amazon has an assortment of $0.00 Kindle Books you can download for free (including "Pride and Prejudice"!).

I'm giving the digital book a chance on the PC first. If I like it I can think about buying a Kindle later.

I just gave in and ordered one - there is no more room for books in the house unless I sell the kids on eBay, and the thought of 3500 books in my bag and hardly weighing a thing was just too tempting. There are loads of classics that can be downloaded free or for just a few pennies (complete works of HG Well for 73p anyone? )
Anyway it should be here next week sometime so I will report back on if I like it or not... I will confess I am childishly excited lol

I've had one for a few weeks now, though as always happens with me the arrival of a gadget coincides with me doing less of what the gadget is for (for a while anyway)!

It has been pretty handy - and I've read a couple of books on it, mostly when I've been travelling - but I certainly haven't gone crazy trying to download 3,500 books!

In fact I've only got two novels and Emily Dickinson's poems on right now.

One gripe though ... I'm currently reading Tess of the d'Urbervilles on it (a freebie) and there seems to be quite a lot of 'typos', which I wouldn't expect if it was a real book. Also the page layout is poor .. one chapter just runs straight into another. Little things (obviously), but the sort of things that mean the Kindle's unlikely to replace the pleasure of reading a proper book for me.

Also, I'm not sure how easy it is to 'flick back' to remind yourself of something earlier in the book. I know you can bookmark pages and make notes, but you don't generally do that when reading a book - it's more that you read something you don't completely follow and then check back to earlier in the book to see where it's come from. Can you only go back - on a Kindle - one page at a time? (As you can see, I haven't read the instructions properly yet!)

I think my wall of resistance to a Kindle is falling down. It hit me the other day that there are many books I'd like to have for reference or maybe to read one day but I wouldn't pay full price for them. Kindle might be the perfect answer to finding and storing those books for "one day" when I need them. I had a look at Amazon and there are so many books available free that it seems silly not to have one. Hmm... interesting..

I'm resisting Kindle so far, but I do think there's a place for e-books. About 18 months ago, I was playing a quiz in Barbados (yeah, I know, tough - but someone's got to do it.. ) when I ran out of books. Luckily, I had my (Nintendo) DS with me snd their 100 Classic books, so I was able to work my way through all the Jane Austens and Arthur Conan Doyles. I dread to think of my mood had I spent 5 days without reading material...

Mine arrived today and I am in love lol. I cannot rave enough about it, it is just amazingly good
I shall try and be reasonably sensible now...
It knew my name In that I ordered it using my Amazon account, and it was set up and preregistered to me, with personalised "stuff" in it already to go. Also the notes which arrived as I used it are all personalised, which although it's a small point, I appreciated.
As soon as I plugged it in to charge it was usable, the user guide was helpful and the controls are really easy and fairly intuitive to use. It took my a matter of minutes to have it up and running, although I haven't tried every feature yet - it does LOTS of things I never expected and will take some time playing happily to get the hang of everything. For downloading and reading though, five minutes and I was immersed in a new book. It took about 3 hours to charge to full from cold - I plugged it in at just after 10am and when I got back at 1.30 it was full, so 3 and a half hours max.
The screen is amazing - it is not at all like a normal computer screen - when I switched on for the first time a page appeared and I actually tried to "pick it off" the screen as I thought it was a label, it was so realistic. It's "electronic paper" apparently and it really does look like the printed page and not at all electronic.
As it turns the page (easy peasy with the controls on both sides of the unit so no matter which hand you use they're right there) it sort of blinks and I thought that would be annoying, but after a while I realised that I was blinking at the same time, the Kindle has "trained me" lol and I don't notice any more!
It can read aloud in a male or female voice, I can email it any documents I want to or connect it via USB and drag and drop them at will.
I can have my daily paper direct to the Kindle and subscribe to magazines. I found two to try and the first issue is free to see if I like them or not, likewise all the books have a "sample" feature whereby I can download Chapter 1 free of charge to see if I want to buy the whole thing or not, and there are hundreds and hundreds of free to download books too. I am so impressed with it I am a convert lol. It won't do away with my real books, but for new ones, that I wouldn't necessarily want cluttering up the house, and all those lovely classics, it is ideal.
I am now off to bed, taking my Kindle with me so nobody can breathe on it while I'm there lol.

I get my books from second hand shops so I will not get one unless someone sets up a cheap sell your old ebook site.