For now, I have to read the printed material as I can not see well enough the kindle and electronic stuff since its design is not defined by its ability to be seen, but by a geek that has no idea that some folks can not read all that, and on top of it, these electronic things are excluding older folks whose vision is not as good as the younger generation.

But honestly, if you ask me, my cynical response is that most people here only read the Cliff Notes, and even then, just for college ... I think that a serious minority of folks here actually reads a lot of these things and I applaud and will bow to the ladies, because they are probably the best read of everyone here ... and even I, fairly well read, although vastly different materials ... don't even come close ... but some of the stuff I have read has been "thorough" and not exactly just a Cliff Note kind of thing.

I've actually read half of all Willie's plays, for example, and I am probably one of the best well read of all the playwrights for example, as my major was DIRECTING (theater and film) and I took all 6 courses of literature in theater at UCSB (only 4 were required), because I enjoyed reading a lot of it, and it gave me staging ideas in my head! 

Literature was a bit different ... I started reading more later due to a culture/language change that really hurt ... and it took me the better part of almost 10 years before I could start reading properly and start enjoying things ... and by that time I was already 25 or 26. But theater was already "there" for me. Film and their scripts, were in my hand though, as you could buy the "script" versions of Bunuel, Godard, Truffaut, Fellini and Bergman (for example), which I loved reading and helped me formulate my VISUAL nature.

The kindle is much easier to read than printed material. With kindle and other e-devices you can adjust the font size and screen brightness to suit your taste. Simple. I thought I would hate the kindle, but after having one for several years, I will never go back to print books. Also, I am one of the older folks whose vision is not great. 

Then there is the debate of which is more environmentally friendly. You can have several hundred e-books on one device that can fit in your back pocket, where print books take up space and a lot of volume in the landfill. 

I was just thinking about that ... and all the titles that will never be there! At least not in the next 50 years!

But remember that I was born in a house with 40K books of literature, a lot of it Portuguese, Spanish, Brazilian, and also a lot of Italian and French and English ... a a nice dose of Americans. That library is now in Lisbon in my dad's name! AND ... I can tell you that half of it will NEVER EVER MAKE IT to Kindle or any other application out there!

So, you can see how/why a printed book is so valuable for me, but the time will be here when I have to slide into the e-book, and I don't have a choice ... I keep joking that I won't get kindle until they publish The Pearl ... but I better not say that too loud, or I will be on Kindle tomorrow!

The only thing that scares me the most, is how folks relate to literature ... I can remember almost EVERY BOOK I have EVER read, including the stuff read in school and university ... ALL OF IT has been massive in my life, and I still talk about it, and use a lot of comparisons to the music/art/theater/film scenes in many places because of it. But then, our house had 3K LP's of music as well, and we went to the theater and saw films, and I went to study theater, and continued my film studies ... so, in most ways ... I'm all about the arts, not just the music, although it is the one area where I am the best informed, other than film. The theater stuff is tough because it has different areas all over and they differ ... with the exception of NY ... the only thing that changes is another version of Cabaret, or Mame, or ... Cats is the big thing now! Annie is next, I bet!

You do know you can increase the font size on a Kindle?.

It's the monitor brightness and light that is a problem ... my eyes will tire within the hour and after that i can not read the screen anymore. I seem to do OK with graphics and WoW, for example, but reading forces me to direct the eyes, and I can do so in a relaxed manner ... at least haven't figured it out yet. 

In some cases, if I can print out the material, that is how I read it, but in most cases on those electronic things, I can not print them out ... and that means I can not read them that way. I, even had to get a bigger monitor to make it easier for me to see things!

E-ink screen doesn't work like a monitor, and aside from some initial ones, all e-book readers use that technology as far as I know. As healthy as paper for the eyes, I guess. The display doesn't contain a light source, and it doesn't consume energy except for the moments when you turn the pages. (That grants the device TREMENDOUS battery life.) Backlighting is an option, and might be tiring for the eyes. Yet, I generally turn on the room light and read, like I do with printed books.