When the Sony Reader appeared on store shelves last September, it didn't make the kind of splash a lot of people expected, and in the months since it hasn't sent waves rippling through the industry. Tech reviewers were less than whelmed by the Readers feature set--no backlighting, no search, no annotation, no wireless web streaming--and they considered the price, $350, to be way too high. Literary types, on the other hand, dismissed the Reader in a rather haughtier manner. They saw it not only as a poor substitute for a book, but as a threat to the hallowed tradition of "the book," another broadside from the over-stimulated, attention-deprived, caffeinated present on the deep-thinking and ever-threatened literary tradition.

Maybe I'm just stubborn, but I still prefer the paper version of books, especially when it comes to some technical references and textbooks. Sure I can highlight the screen and attach notes to it as well, but generally I have found that opening the book to exactly the information I need is still much faster than booting up a computer (or application) and either searching or jumping to a book mark. Plus it is still hard to lie down on your back and relax with a tablet or ebook reader than it is with a small paperback.