New books from Amazon in Kindle format are typically cheaper than list price for the paper edition, and generally cheaper than either Amazon or Barnes and Noble. The paperbacks aren't much of a savings; 10% or so. Newly released hardbacks are mostly $10, which is a significant discount. If a lot of what you read is from Baen, their prices are considerably lower for e-format. And then there's manybooks.net and www.gutenberg.org, which between them have provided Shakati with a year's worth of free reading.
Of course it still takes a lot of discount or free books to add up to $359.00. And the technology isn't perfect. And the DRM is a royal pain. But I found myself buying a book for the Kindle that I already had in paperback because I liked the reading experience so much more. And you really can't beat the "It's midnight, I'm awake in a hotel in a strange city, I need something to read" availability or the "going on vacation for 2 weeks, bringing all my books" capacity.
The differences between the Kindle and the Kindle 2 aren't enough to persuade me to get another, but I'm definitely glad I have mine.
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New books from Amazon in Kindle format are typically cheaper than list price for the paper edition, and generally cheaper than either Amazon or Barnes and Noble. The paperbacks aren't much of a savings; 10% or so. Newly released hardbacks are mostly $10, which is a significant discount. If a lot of what you read is from Baen, their prices are considerably lower for e-format. And then there's manybooks.net and www.gutenberg.org, which between them have provided Shakati with a year's worth of free reading.
Of course it still takes a lot of discount or free books to add up to $359.00. And the technology isn't perfect. And the DRM is a royal pain. But I found myself buying a book for the Kindle that I already had in paperback because I liked the reading experience so much more. And you really can't beat the "It's midnight, I'm awake in a hotel in a strange city, I need something to read" availability or the "going on vacation for 2 weeks, bringing all my books" capacity.
The differences between the Kindle and the Kindle 2 aren't enough to persuade me to get another, but I'm definitely glad I have mine.