I am one of those people who really likes to get lost in the writing, rather than the cover, or the paper or the smell. Any compelling writing becomes even more so when I don’t need to constantly reconfigure my hand position to hold a book open, or read deeply into the shadowy margin that some paper-backs seem to have. As for reading in bed at night, the keyboard of the Kindle resting on my chest puts it the perfect height to read effortlessly.

I look at it the same way I did with LP’s although sliding the paper sleeve out of the record jacket and taking out the record, and cleaning and anti-stat treating it were all integral parts to my listening to a record, they were part of the ritual, not the content.

I’m told the nextgen Kindle won’t have an SD card slot; it seems like this would make the Kindle solely dependent on Amazon for content – unless you could still use the email feature to send free content to your Kindle.

So you can easily purchase e-books in Mobipocket from some other source, or better still, download a ton of books off Project Gutenberg in text format, and then transfer it on to the Kindle and read them

1: When you buy a new book there’s no waiting for a delivery. My fiancee is a book-eater and sometimes it just takes forever for Amazon to actually ship books we order.
2: The price of a Kindle book is lower than the price of a physical book: more books for your money!
3: It’s WAY better for the environment. No trees will be harmed when a book is distributed digitally.

These are IMHO three compelling reasons to get a Kindle. If only it would be a bit cheaper and it wouldn’t have epic waiting times to get one…

That is just silly talk. Its like saying you bought an iPod and can never listen to a CD or record again. There is nothing stopping you from enjoying a Kindle’s benefits when appropriate and enjoying a physical book from your friend or in other situations. I own a word processor but nothing stops me from writing in a notebook.

As for the smell, I guess I can’t relate. And as for the character, I think internet discourse tends to romanticize the process of doing things, instead of actually doing something (c.f. digital photography, computer reviews, GTD, etc). I tend to care very little about the character of a book, aside from perhaps the very occasional interesting cover, and care very much about the story and how it is written. But then again, I *do* read a lot of books.

And I wouldn’t describe it as being “tied” to Amazon bookstore. Its the largest bookstore in the world. Its main drawbacks from physical book stores are delivery time and an inability to browse through books before purchasing, both of which are remedied (instant downloads & trial chapters) with the Kindle.

I can see someone not liking the Kindle. Quite eay to imagine in fact. And I can see someone liking it, but still thinking it is too expensive–that is the boat I am in. But I don’t understand any of your rationale.