Three cheers for real books!
My friends all praise their Kindles and whatnot, but no company can remotely disable any of my physical books on a whim/copyright disagreement. Also, I collect cookbooks (to the tune of a couple thousand volumes), and a good portion of my collection is comprised of manuscript cookbooks dating between the mid-1800s through the 1960s. Hard to download one of those to study when I own the only one!
(louveciennes , Volvospotter, Thu 4 Nov 2010, 15:12, 1 reply)

Kindles/reader things have two purposes
1. Reading on the way to work. I've just spent the last month's commutes reading Infinite Jest, and a 4lb 1,000 page paperback was a pain in the arse every day. Many days there wasn't room to hold the monster out at a comfortable reading angle, meaning I was just lugging more dead weight around (along with laptop, hard drive, phone, notebook etc.) A Kindle would have been perfect - thin and light, no two-handed hassle trying to turn pages while holding the rail on a bouncy bit of track, read it even squashed into a tight corner...
2. Business trips. I always take a book or two if I'm away for any time at all, and the weight can really add up. You have to choose things that you can fit, not necessarily what you're dying to read. Kindle again would help.

I'm thinking seriously about asking Mrs S. for one for Christmas, but I'd still keep buying real books. I love my stacked shelves, I love real paper, and I'd never want to read a screen in bed. This does mean that I'll be paying for every book twice, but given the state of the publishing industry and how little authors make, I'll just call that charity.
( Scrumper, Thu 4 Nov 2010, 18:01, closed)

I don't find them useful at all
But that might be because my vision + small screen = eyestrain and a splitting headache. Besides, 30 years of carrying around a book hasn't done wrong by me yet, and if I leave it on the train seat by mistake it will likely be there when I go back for it!
(louveciennes , Volvospotter, Thu 4 Nov 2010, 22:50, closed)