Well, I am not one who believes that the reading experience is better with ebooks.. but they do have some very distinct advantages over regular books. Here are some ways an ebook reader can save you money.
1. Ability to load 2-3000 books saves you the cost of a semi to carry your library with you so you have the book you want when you want it
.
2. No need to build a new 1000 square foot addition to your house to house your library.
3. No chance of throwing your back out when you try to get 10 books to the check out at your local book store.
4. No chance your UPS guy will trip on your front steps delivering new books from Amazon therefore resulting in pricey legal settlement.
More seriously: Some of these are small, but they can add up.
1. Thousands of books for free on Project Gutenberg, Feedbooks, Manybooks.net, Google and other sites -- granted most of these are old books, but some authors (Cory Doctrow, Charles Stross and Jeffrey Carver amongst the more prominent) make some or all of their works available for free. Also, unless your interests swing very much towards more modern genres (like techno-thrillers), odds are you will find things you like (I would never have discovered Sabatini without ebooks).
2. If you have a habit of buying the latest books, most ebooks will cost less than their hardback version. Alas, the same isn't always true of paperback books.
My personal experience is this. I have had an ebook reader for about 2 years now. In that time I have read (I would guess) 50+ books. I have spent about $10 on books in that time. If we assume $7 a book (assuming a rather low cost for a paperback I think!), I would have spent between $300-$400 on books, but instead I spent $179 on my ebook reader.
So, I would say yes, my ebook reader has saved me money. I still probably have 50 more in my to be read list
.
--
Bill