I'd be more excited if the thing were cheaper, or if I could get my hands on a loaner.

Yes, it looks like they got a lot of things right. Maybe I was looking for a reason to feel better about not wanting to spend that much money to see whether the trade-offs are worth it.

Fear not, there's excitement. :)

Argh, your blog strips URLs:

http://mindlace.net/archives/2007/11/21/why-i-bought-a-kindle/

Thanks Vika. ;-)

My Kindle arrived this morning.

Ooh! And, and?

Fortunately for me our head librarian and the IT department agreed to join forces to order a Kindle.

If I read the fora correctly, I can't use it as an MP3 player and I have to use a conversion utility to upload my own PDFs, so I'm not sure that it's quite the product I was hoping for... still, I would be happy to hear your thoughts about it now that you've had it for a while.

I'd like to give the kindle a spin. I think they've solved a lot of problems with this device concerning how to make electronic texts accessible, but it's still a big turn off to purchase electronic texts which have very limited markup capabilities, lack the possibility of resale or borrowing, and must be read on a device that costs the same amount as an EEE PC. This reader seems like a great solution for texts which are often quickly used and then thrown away (newspapers, magazines, etc), but I think the benefits of an electronic reader do not, and will not for some time, outweigh the traditional book. The $400 price is also a major deal breaker for me. I am interested to hear the experiences of those that have used the device though.

Thanks for the comments, everyone. I do plan to write something up about the Kindle, as soon as I can come up for air from the end of the semester crush.