Guess I am a born and bred Gutenberger rather than a Googlee or I would have tried to include this link to the nook in the original post. You can read all about the nook at your leisure, if you so desire.

I'm in love with the Nook, though - it looks like a very nice piece of kit. However, as it's only available in the US, then I won't get too interested.

(I wonder, however, if B&N are aware of what a Nook e-book sounds like to us in the UK...)

The Sony site has a nice comparison chart for the Sony eReader vs Amazon Kindle, and I think the Nook will be similar to the Sony device. I still prefer physical books, but an eReader would be nice for reading while traveling (not that I do much of that, but my husband does) or to replace reading on the PC with something much easier on the eyes. I would use one for public domain text (such as anything you'd find on Gutenberg.org).

I think we're going to see more competition pop up in the next few years and prices should fall as the market becomes more competitive (so I've been biding my time). I read that Hearst is working on an eReader for magazines. I do think eReaders would be nice for magazine subscriptions. I stopped subscribing to magazines after I had kids and feel like I'm constantly battling the paper pile-up at home between mail and school paperwork the kids bring home. I would re-subscribe to some of my favorite magazines if I could read them on an eReader, but I'm waiting for someone to give Amazon Kindle some competition before I invest.

None of the magazines I used to subscribe to offer anything but a print version (as far as I know). I'd love to see magazines step into the 21st century and offer content for eReaders or the PC. I know many offer free content on their websites and RSS feeds, but it's not quite the same as having full access to their articles on your eReader or PC. You'll never persuade me to read on a PDA or cell phone. Not gonna happen!

Hahahaha! We have a special section for those books at work!

I would like an ebook reader for times like travelling, but the cost is prohibitive for me at the moment. We sell one at work but it is about $400.

More interestingly, particularly to the magazine market or the business document market, I think that colour won't be far away

I would, however, love to have one, but purchasing anything of the sort is out of the question right now. And as long as I have access to a truly wonderful interlibrary loan system, and only walk a few steps from my car into work (where I often can read), an ereader is very low on the list.

I wonder, however, if my brother would like one for Christmas. He loves both books and electronic devices - he is an avid purchaser of first editions and a software engineer. Now that is something to look into - he deserves something nice in his stocking this year.

Is it because the digital world is such a break from the Gutenberg world that the names given to digitally-related items are rather odd? EG: I recently subscribed to Disqus, a service for blog comments. What is the reason to spell 'discuss' as Disqus? Other than marketing (money is not involved on my part!), is this the branding phenomenon? Should I begin to relate oddly named and spelled entities as belonging to the digital world? Do these words grab the attention of techno-geeks?

I am not complaining, just curious.

They solved the problem in the Waterstone's shops here in England (when they brought out the Sony Reader) by simply fixing them securely down! So you can play with them, but you can't pick them up.