I sell both books and e-readers for a living (and I'm disappointed to see everyone going with the product of our competitors, le sigh).

I come from a family of readers, and my parents have more books than any other group of people I know. We all also have e-readers.

Most readers are apprehensive about reading on an electronic device. But, if you can get past the first half hour or so, you tend to forget that you're reading that way with an e-Ink screen.

Since their introduction, the devices have gotten incredibly smooth, and have an absolute ton of functionality, most of which is designed to make things easier on readers. Font, line spacing, margins, and text size are all adjustable. There are built in dictionaries. There are tons of ways to flip through pages from chapter jumps to bookmarking pages to searching for lines and passages.

Books still do have advantages. You can pick it up and open to a random page. You can read it without having to charge it. You can feel the pages flipping through your fingers.

Nevertheless, e-readers also have their perks. Books are usually substantially cheaper (textbooks and technical books aside), you can store more in a single location or pack them for a vacation without having to choose which ones to take or filling three suitcases.

If we're buying a book that we know we want, we'll get a physical copy. When Skin Games comes out, I'm going to pick it up in hardcover, because I want that physical copy, and I think it's worth the extra investment. But if there's a book that catches my attention and I think "oh, that might be worth a try", or if it's a book that my mom wants for her book club, why not get it on the e-reader?

I don't really see why it has to be an either-or situation. Are you forced to buy a collector's edition of every video game that comes out? Or do you pick some up from the used games rack or after price drops? Or do you download some of them? Hardcover, paperback, e-book. It's the same question.