Help Me (Not) Buy A Kindle

Here’s the deal, folks, I have enough money to purchase the all too sexy Amazon Kindle, and I cannot decide whether or not I should lay down the funds for such a device. I need your help.

I’m pretty conflicted on the decision because on the one hand it’s a full-on, super-duper book reading machine of awesomeness. I mean, look how long that Amazon page is. You have to scroll like a mile to get to the bottom of that thing. That’s Grade-A quality right there; you can feel it. You can carry around all of your books with you, the battery lasts for a decade weeks, and you can pick up new books with a push of a button (and with monies). My bookshelf right now is overflowing. I have books just stacked up around the bookshelf like some well learned hobo. It would be great to have one thing were all the books go; a book vacuum, if you will. “I need to read this book! Well hot damn, it’s right here on the Kindle, woo!”

On the other hand, what’s greater than having a big ol’ novel in your hands? The texture, the smell, the ability to carry it around and say “Yeah, I’m reading this” in your head as people walk passed that could care less about you or your book. Those things are all great. Even if my bookshelf is falling apart with use, the thought of more books stacking tall on the ground is a good thought. I shared some similar thoughts over at P&B recently in regards to audio books. The process of reading outside of the words themselves is something that’s attractive to me, so I don’t know how it would be to take that away. Just like how people have a hard time substituting cigarettes for something else because they just need that ritual of smoking, I really like having the physical medium.

And that brings me to the point of everything: has anyone had any experience with a Kindle or other E-Book reader? Did you like it? Did it suck? Do you think I should just man up and buy one so that we can start saving the earth by not cutting down trees for books? I really would like to have one, but I don’t know if I could replace turning pages the old fashioned way.