The only way you could possibly make a case for the Kindle being anything other than a piece of junk is to totally disregard (or be unaware of) absolutely all the other possibilities out there.

This is the very opposite of “user-generated” technology. Libraries ought to have nothing to do with trying to shove this down the consumer’s throat. It’s a really bad investment.

I own one, have been using it a lot, and it is absollutely wonderful. I have owned probably ever ebook reader that has been sold in many years, and they are — as he says — mostly junk. But certainly not the Kindle.

My reading speed and eye comfort on my Kindle is absolutely great. It’s speed in turning pages, is fantastic. It’s capacity (with my own 8 GB Hign Capacity SD card, is like nothing I have ever seen. I’m gradually adding my entire reference library to it, which is absolutely impossible with any other device.

I took mine down to the library, and they were green with envy. But due to the critical shortages of Kindles, they just won’t be able to get any for lending, but sooner or later they know that they will.

One problem is that DRM digital rights is an absolute travesty — buy your own ebooks and put them on your Kindle yourself via your USB cable. It’s the reincarnation of copy protection which plagued PC programs for too long until buyers rebelled and refused to buy any with that, as I hope they do for Kindle products. I think that stupid lawyers got involved who knew nothing about buyer psychology, even ignoring what is their legal rights to ownership. It’s okay to license a play for production, but not okay to license a book to read.