h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I was vacilating for ages and ages.

Then the decision was taken from my hands when my mum bought me a Kindle for my birthday.

Now I feel guilty if I read a book because it's there not being used, and I feel guilty if I use the Kindle because my to-read pile is engulfing the house.

Over to someone else...

I was given a Kindle by Ben, and at first I was disappointed, then I felt bad for being disappointed.

Now I love it though. I love being able to change the font whenever I want, because as a dyslexic I find aerial easier than Times New Roman. I do feel guilty when I read real books now because the kindle is unused, and the Kindle doesn't make a visible dent in my to-read pile.

my Kindle has just added to the to-read pile

all the classics that I can get for free, or cheaply...

I got a kindle for christmas, it is now bursting with stuff I've had on my mental to-read pile for decades, that I downloaded from project gutenburg. I don't have a lot of physical books in my to-read pile just now as I just haven't been buying them. That makes me feel bad for the booksellers that are struggling.

I also feel bad that Ben and I occupy a three bedroom family home, when really we only need one because we of the sheer volume of books.

I've been thinking of getting some kind of e-book reader - not Kindle though, since Amazon doesn't have any books in Swedish.

And I don't like being limited to one type of e-book format either.

Should we expand the debate to include audiobooks?

I quite like being able to cart my whole to-read pile around with me.

I actually thought I'd hate using a Kindle, but I've sort of fallen in love with it a bit.

I'd love to be able to have audiobooks but they are so expensive

I use Kindle only because Amazon is where I buy 90% of my books anyway, since I prefer to read in English. I often buy secondhand anyway, but if I'm going to read something in German (unless it's for free like the Amazon offers after Christmas) I use our local bookshop.

I like having not only my uni books on there, but also the notes I get for/from tutorials and stuff from my tutor - converted into PDF and shoved on there for use if I'm somewhere without my books (and it all came in very useful when I went to Turkey for a few days recently)

I've had my Kindle since last Spring and have grown very attached to it. I like carrying around lots of books as it fits my habit of having several books on the go at once. It's easy to get hold of new books if I run out (eg when on holiday) and there's instant, free access to all those classics I never quite got round to reading before. I change font sizes acording to whether I'm wearing glasses, contact lenses or squinting through naked eyes. That last point is a definite win compared to dense pages of tiny letters in some thick printed books like the last Neal Stephenson I read in dead tree format.

On the down side, I feel guilty when I use my Kindle at the thought of aiming another blow at already hard hit independent book dealers.