How's that Kindle now, after a few months of use? It looks like there are some nice alternatives out there. I went with an alternative MP3, to the iPod. Problem is; nobody makes aftermarket accessories for it. 95% is all about iPod. Is the Kindle the iPod of eBooks?

I pay $17 / month to receive my local paper, every day at my front gate. I can download it on the Kindle for $6.99 / month. That makes it even more interesting.

I would say the Kindle, along with the Sony ereaders, are the Ipods of ebooks. Fortunately, there are all kinds of conversion tools available to download books in one format and convert it to the format your specific ereader uses.

This is the one I have since about one year.
I took it travelling and hiking (never without a book!), and am satisfied so far. It's actually thinner and lighter than an average paperback. It can be reloaded through an USB charger, like this one , or computer of course.
It uses very little energy (thousands of pages), and with the proper software can display PDF of what you like. Black and white only, but may be next generations will have a bit of color ?

I'm tempted to do something like this, except it wouldn't be an ebook reader like you're looking at, it'd be a small tablet pc. The Fujitsu u810/u820 weight about 1.5 lbs. The greatest advantage to me is that I can take any book, scan it in, and read it normally because the pdf's are simply pictures. I believe most ebook readers require text so that it can be reflowed, which wouldn't be suitable for me. The u810 would allow me to carry around guidebooks, survival books, novels and anything else I can fit onto the drive. Other advantages are that I can use it as a gps with full blown navigation software, I can use it to upload/download stuff to my handheld gps, I can write up logs to quickly post up to a blog as soon as I get into town and do email there as well without having to find a public computer.

The greatest downside to carrying around a tablet is shorter battery life....probably around 6 hours on a battery if I totally optimize it. The next is bringing around the charger, if I want more power while out on the trail, a solar charger. I suppose if I planned really well on something like the PCT, I could get spare batteries sent to me in supply boxes.

I may get one anyway. I've seen used u810's go for $300, which is about the same as some ebook readers, and infinitely more useful for me.