Amazon debuted its three-year old project today -- Kindle gives you e-books, as well as lots of newspapers and blogs and Wikipedia and other stuff automatically uploaded to the device. It's priced a little over $300 bucks. There's lots of hoopla about it, seems like a lot of people are very excited about replacing books made of paper.
Why?
I like books. I like dog-earing pages, I like making notes in margins, I like flipping back and forth -- didn't he leave the gun in the car? -- and I like carrying paperbacks in my tote and having hardbacks on my nightstand.
I like bookmarks. I like cover art.
I like the feel of paper, and the way a book feels in my hand.
Kindle is a cool toy but it's not friendly like a book. Just look at it. And it costs too much, too.
And then, there's bookstores. I like bookstores. I like roaming the aisles, I like ....
May 2011 Update: Prices went down. I got a Nook Color for Christmas - it didn't work, so I returned it. Now, I have a Kindle 3G with WiFi and I like it. I like paper better, but I do find uses for the ereader. For more, please refer to the posts under the label "e-books."