To Kindle or not to Kindle?

I love my Kindle.  I was given one as a birthday present and had no idea how much I would fall in love with this piece of technology.  I was sceptical that it would feel like reading a book, I thought I would miss the lovely physical thing that a book is.  But no.  Soon I was so absorbed I was trying to turn the pages of my Kindle.  I love the access that it gives me to whatever I want to read, pretty much whenever I want to read it. I love the fact that I can keep everything I read without having to find more and more space for bookshelves.  I'll no longer take a pile of books to the charity shop, only to regret it a few weeks later.  I love how light it is to carry around. I love being able to download trial chapters for free.

But of course there are downsides to the Kindle.  Book shops are already suffering.  Waterstones has closed shops, Borders has closed altogether. What happens to those who do not want to buy books (print or electronic) online? And will the rise in electronic books lead to print books becoming more expensive?  Robert McCrum in the Observer suggests that owning printed books might become synonymous with collecting them, noting that Malcolm Gladwell has suggested that the future for printed books may be the higher priced hardback. So perhaps the future of the physical book shop may be the independent book shop selling specialist and collectible books?

The other issue of course is that Amazon manufactures the Kindle, as well as selling Kindle ebooks, giving it a monopoly which has allowed it to drive prices down - although publisher resistance has now forced Amazon to adopt a model where publishers set the prices instead.  Still it has led to Kindle ebook prices being generally lower than print prices and while I like a cheap book as much as the next person I think William Skidelsky makes some interesting points in his Guardian blog about the value of the "text itself".

So to Kindle or not to Kindle?  Well despite everything I can't help loving mine.  It's a bit like my Tesco online shop.  I know I shouldn't like it, but it's so damn convenient.