At the moment give me paper but I reserve the right to change my mind as e-readers improve. At the moment there is no e-reader I’d want to use for a few hundred pages for reasons of resolution, contrast, holding, interface, and potential eye strain (some do deal with part of the problem but no one covers it all yet).
But why do you need so many books on your person at once?
I prefer the feel of a book, but I think I would be fine with pushing a button.
Despite being a propeller head, I prefer real books.
A book made out of electronic paper is what you want, not magic. There’ll probably be one someday, although who knows how affordable it’ll be.
Personally I prefer reading paper books, but will read online on my PC; a handheld book reader would be much less awkward. Although the one in the OP looks ugly and archaic.
Holding a real book,the smell of it etc.is part of the pleasure for me.
In 2000 Mr. singular got me a Rocket ebook for out anniversary. Obviously an early entry into the eReader field, but I really liked it. The only problem with flying with it was the attention it drew - as I sat in a coffee shop between flights reading it, I was interrupted about every 15 minutes by people that just had to know what I was looking at. I loved having 12 books loaded into it for the trip, and a bonus was that I could use it as a nightlight in my brother-in-law’s house, which was pitch black at night. It was great to use while Mr. singular slept beside me - no lamp was on to disturb him. It was a little bulky, but no more so than a hardcover. The problem was completely on my end. I got a new computer in 2003 and lost the software to download books. Then I moved and all kinds of other crap happened and frankly, I forgot about it. I should look into resurrecting it.
In comparison, this looks similar but somewhat superior, with one big exception - $10 a book is absurd. With the Rocketbook, the classics were 99¢, and I loaded a bunch of them. Although I guess it would even out, since the latest bestsellers were about $15-$17 each. But I guess that covers the wireless service. I’ll wait until this has been around long enough to work the kinks out and come way down in price - I figure in a couple years it’ll be about $150 and a lot more refined. Then I’ll be all over it.
I’ve never tried to read an e-book, and I’m not sure I will like it. At work I find myself printing out long documents instead of reading them on the screen.
The ability to search on a keyword might win me over, though. I’m always skimming through my favorite books looking for a particular scene.
For the same reason that people carry thousands of songs or videos on their person. I routinely have more than one book in progress at any given time and it’d be nice to carry them on one small device rather than hauling them around or having to decide which one(s) to carry. I’ve been trying to do some concentrated improvements to some Wikipedia articles lately and having the books I’m using for research on a single device would be very helpful, especially if the device offers some searching utilities. Not that it’s likely that those books would be available in an electronic format but the principle is the same.
I read ebooks on my desktop or pocketPC from time to time but I really don’t enjoy it as much as reading a paper book. After reading for a fairly short time I find I get a headache from the glare.
I have an unreasonable attachment to paper books and an ebook reader would have to be a significant improvement over anything on the market now to get me to even consider switching from my beloved paper.
The newest line of ebooks have very little eyestrain and great resolution with eink/epaper/whatever they’re calling it. They aren’t LCDs (at least not in the traditional sense,) and don’t emit their own light, so they are much more confortable to read for long periods of time.
Amazon’s Kindle will read it’s own format, HTML, PDF, Word, and a few other formats, as well as play MP3s from SD cards. You can download books to it when hooked up to your PC, or from anywhere else. It has FREE EV-DO coverage from…Sprint? I think? So as long as you’re in an area with good cell reception, you should be able to go online and download a new book (you’ll pay for the book, but not access to the wireless network.)
You can never have too many books on you. 
I second that. At the moment I have 575 on my phone - from Adams, Douglas to Zelazny, Roger
Sometimes I get bored with what I’m reading or have more free time than expected and finish one.
I like both formats, actually. There is something simply seductive about the idea of carrying a library about with me while I’m on the bus. Just think: I can finish the book I’m currently reading, then browse my library, then, and find the book I’ll want to read, next. I don’t have to choose before leaving which two books I’ll carry. Hell’s bells, I could set up my own poetry sampler. W. H. Auden and Robert W. Service really aren’t found together in many poetry books. For reasons I can’t begin to guess. 
I also love the smell, feel and look of a book, too. I don’t think I’ll ever give up on so-called dead tree editions.
Having said that, I really think that the prices associated with the books still seems too high. The prices for physical books are set, in a large part, by labor, warehousing and manufacturing costs. Why should an ebook’s price be set at some large fraction of that cost, when the actual costs for warehousing and manufacturing an ebook are so much lower. AIUI once a book as been formatted for modern printing, using those files to create an ebook is a trivial exercise. By all means, charge for an ebook - I do support intellectual property rights. But trying to claim that NYT bestsellers selling at $10 a pop is not what I’d consider a bargain.
I read ebooks on my mobile phone. I haven’t noticed much in the way of eyestrain, although it did initially take me some time to get used to the difference in the print on the screen and print in a book.
But why? Are you guys reading more than one at a time? I can push through one book that I feel is not exactly* light* for me, but that I think is worth the effort (right now that is The Souls of Black Folks by W.E.B. Dubois, second reading) and at the same time read something that I can devour because I love it ( right now that is The Masks of God, Vol.1). But 2 books are the maximum.
How can anyone manage many books at a time?
Some of it may be the depth of the books involved. Another factor can be simply whether one is reading for the first time, or re-reading.
At the moment I’m in the middle of five different books. Three ebooks on the computer, one popcorn book in the bathroom, and another that I carry around with me for those other times when I need something to read while killing time.
Have you ever finished a book in the waiting room? Or gotten about halfway through one and realized you didn’t like it? Or been somewhere without a book? Or seen/heard something that reminded you of an old favorite that you’d like to read again? Or grabbed a realbook on the way out the door and realized it was the one you just finished? Or stood at a bus stop in the rain afraid to open your new book? Or ran out of room to neatly store all your books? Or been cruising along through a series and realize you skipped book 2? Or just want to go back and search for a quote from a book you don’t have with you?
I don’t read 500 books at a time, but if I suddenly want to glance over Thomas Paine’s Common Sense or peruse Hemingway or make my way through a few Zane Grey adventure, I can do it on a whim.
Thanks for your response. The above quote is the one that made me realize I was way out of my league.
Some interesting commentary here.
I have a tonne of books at home, and I used to visit the library regularly.
In the past year and a half I haven’t been to the library once. I’ve transferred who knows how many ebooks onto my Palm Pilot from the library’s website. I still read paper, but not as much.