I just got a Kindle for Christmas and LOVE it! Before getting one I wasn't so sure how I would adjust to not having a book in hand, but the Kindle is so convenient! One of the biggest reasons I got one is because I hate packing 5 books on vacation and have them take up so much space.

I am quite comfortable with both paperbacks and my iPad. Especially since most of the books on my iPad are not available in paperback. The best thing is that I can 'borrow' books from my local library in digital form and for some reason they don't delete themselves and I get to keep them after the loan period is over. Weird but works for me.

As a hopeless and confirmed bibliophile I have spent countless, wondrous, hours haunting bookstores, new and used, feeding my hunger, my addiction. I moved an ever growing collection of boxes, full of my prizes, everywhere I lived. When my first wife left me, the one thing I made sure to keep was my book collection. While stationed in England with the Air Force, I bought an illustrated Victorian set of the Complete Works of Shakespeare. I would never part with those mildewed, musty, magnificent tomes. When E-readers first came on the scene I scoffed; it wasn't really reading if you couldn't smell the pages, feel the texture on your fingertips as you held a book or turned a page. We made our 9th move in 17 years. I began to have health problems with my heart and my hip. A coworker let me borrow their Kindle to read a book I couldn't get that they had. Sigh. Now my collection of books rests in their moving boxes in a storage unit and I carry, almost, my entire library on a Kindle. Pain and exhaustion wore me down. Lighter and easier won out. I still keep my Victorian set of Shakespeare in a prominent place and pull them down and read them occasionally. My kids, who are growing up in a world where book stores have become an endangered species, wrinkle their noses and wonder aloud, "Why does that book smell so olllldd?" I look to the heavens, sigh, and breathe deep the aroma of history.