I'm going to be perfectly honest here - I'm not crazy about e-books.
I love the idea of e-books* - being able to have a massive digital library at the click of a button is amazing. With sites like Project Gutenberg and the ability to borrow e-books from libraries, this is brilliant. I also love the ability to perform a full-text search on a book - I find this particularly useful in the Safari books because when I access them it is to solve a particular problem, not sit down and get cozy with my favorite characters.
I am, however, not sold on the application of e-books. Part of the problem is that I do not own a device for reading them, be it kindle, nook or iPad. I have an iPhone, but the screen is too small to be any use for reading. I am not impressed with most of the ownership/copyright issues associated with e-books - I really like the fact that when I purchase a hard copy of a book, it is my book.
I also really love the experience of reading - the tactile experience, the smell. Curled up with a book on a rainy day just wouldn't be the same with a kindle.
I think the technology is close - I would imagine that in five years I will find a reader that suits my needs/wants, and I will convert. I do not think that e-books will ever wholly replace books - I do think that we will see fewer printed textbooks and technical books - anything that would greatly benefit from full-text searching and cheap mass distribution will move to the e-book format.
*I would have really liked the e-book format during my last move.
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