Verdict: I LOVE MY KINDLE.
Pros: I love being able to tuck my Kindle into my purse and know that I will not run out of reading material at any time during any spare moment. I love that it is unobtrusive and doesn't take up a lot of space in my purse. I love that no matter how "thick" the book I'm reading, the Kindle is lightweight and easy to hold. I love that I can operate it with one hand and take care of children with the other, all without losing my place or having Magdalena pull my bookmark out. On that note, I love that I can quickly snap it shut (I have a simple cover on mine) and not worry about having to remember what page I'm on. I love that I don't have to worry about getting my hands on hard-to-find physical copies of books in random bookstores in the UAE. (And I'm sure the AUS library loves that I've stopped requesting that they buy so many books just to feed my reading habits.) I love that I can sometimes find awesome books for a dollar, or two dollars, or sometimes three. I love that I can get Kindle books at the library for free. I love that I can change the font size with a swipe of two fingers so that when I'm at the park with the kids and the sun is going down and the streetlights haven't turned on yet, I can make the type bigger and eke out five more minutes of reading. As I saw with A Red Herring Without Mustard, I love that I can highlight favorite or interesting or clunky or questionable passages of a book with the touch of a finger (and look up word definitions, too!).
Cons: I find that reading non-fiction is more of a chore on a Kindle. Non-fiction books are often enriched by maps, and appendices, and pictures, and sometimes you want to flip back to check on a name or a date. That's not so easy on a Kindle. Also, the Kindle displays a progress percentage at the bottom of the screen so during drier or more tedious sections of a book (and this happens more often with non-fiction), you are reminded at every moment that the percentage completed is barely crawling by. Then, since that percentage includes the notes, index, afterword, etc., a non-fiction book often reaches its true conclusion at 80%-85% in, which is disorienting. There is something to be said for feeling a book's true heft in your hands and being able to get an idea of the scope of the book by flipping through its pages before settling in to read it. That's not really possible on a Kindle. Finally - and this is kind of weird - my memories of books are sometimes tied to their physical appearance or the way they "feel" to read. Now I have a whole bunch of memories of reading dozens of different books while holding the same slim electronic device in my hands. It makes for a less rich reading experience.
But overall, those cons are mere quibbles. My Kindle allows me to read more books, including books that I wouldn't normally have access to, in places I wouldn't normally be able to read them (because it's not always practical to carry around a huge book everywhere). If you think you might like a Kindle, just get one already. You'll probably love it, as I do.