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My spending habits have changed significantly. In a previous life (i.e., before Sony PRS-505), I only bought hardcover books that I wanted to add to my permanent collection, spending $5,000+ a year on those books (some of the books cost $150+). The books had to be first edition and in fine condition.
Wih my new life (after PRS-505) my habits have changed. I still buy hardcover books that I want to add to my permanent collection, but at a significantly reduced rate -- largely because I already have hundreds more books to read than I will live long enough to read. But books that I am not so sure that I want to add to my permanent library, I buy as ebooks, where I am more price conscious.
If the ebook would cost me the same or very near the price of the pbook, then I simply do not buy the ebook. I either buy the pbook or pass on the book altogether. OTOH, if I buy an ebook and find I really like it and find it valuable (such as is occurring with Taylor Branch's trilogy regarding civil rights in the Martin Luther King years), then I will also buy the hardcover version.
I basically consider my ebooks as throwaway books; that is, unlike with pbooks, I find it hard to think about building a library of ebooks. I don't literally delete the ebooks so that they cannot be reread someday, but I do remove a book from my Reader as soon as I am finished with it and I save the ebook files in a zip file.
In the end, my after PRS-505 spending on books has declined significantly. I've spent a third this year (after) of what I spent last year (before), and I do not see that as changing in the near future.
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