All the hoopla recently about eBooks has made me start thinking about what my personal feelings are about the value of an eBook.
I read quite a bit, and I certainly don’t need to keep everything I read, which given the size of my apartment that’s a good thing. Looking up at my shelves, 
I clearly see I’m due for a little purge of what I am keeping, but I digress.
Love the idea of eBooks they won’t take up space on my already crowded shelves and they’re lightweight. But I don’t love the idea that if i did buy an ebook today, down the road if I switched from device a to device b (like Kindle to iPad) the ebook file may be rendered unreadable.
It’s one thing for me to make a conscious descion to not keep something and quite another for something to be rendered obsolete. So, really, its as if you’re leasing the file for the lifetime of your device. (I am willfully ignoring big brother occurrences in this post.)
My history with eReaders is not good, I killed 2 Sony eReaders within 6 weeks – apparently I squashed the screen by stuffing it in my purse. Ultimately, I went to the Container Store and picked up a lucite box which better protected the screen than the flimsy faux leather cover. The experience does not leave me feeling confident about the lifespan of eReaders.
I think, as a consumer, I’m waiting until I was sure I really get to keep the eBook before I buy an eReader. I don’t recall this issue with mp3s…. yes itunes is mp4 but its easy to convert to mp3. Is my mind swiss cheese? If it is, please correct me.