Just when I get around to making a post (albeit a lame one) about Kindle, Sean Lindsay comes up with an excellent review/response to the Kindle launch.
101 Reasons to Stop Writing : » Where’s the Fire? Amazon’s ‘Kindle’ Fizzles

Pundits have been predicting for years that ebooks and ebook devices will eventually, finally, once and for all free us from the tyranny of having to carry around more than one book when we travel. This neotopian vision of a paperless, rights-managed future took one giant stumble forward last week with the launch of the Amazon Kindle ebook reader.

Really, really well put.

Personally, I love my bookshelves, I love wandering around book shops. The textures, colors, sizes of the covers make a large part of the experience for me, of reading a book. Especially since my reading, these days, consists of me looking longingly over at the bookshelves in the living room whilst shackled down to the couch with a young one occupying both arms. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve looked at the spine of Home Land (which I’ve read) or Spook Country (not yet) or Arthur Koestler’s Sleepwalkers (read, but always good for a re-read) or any number of the other books up there, knowing that if I moved even the slightest bit the kiddo is going to wake up and ruin our remaining waking hours (as well as a few of the intended sleeping ones). I can’t imagine looking at my ebook reader’s lovely plastic side and getting the same effect, as lame and sad as the original effect actually is.
I’ve even tried this, just a few minutes ago, to try my hypothesis. For lack of an ebook reader I used a Tupperware ™ container that was kind of rectangular-ish. And I got nothing. No feelings, whatsoever. See? Ebooks are doomed.