I took my two Sonys to a family gathering yesterday, and they drew a crowd. I couldn't even read, I just passed my readers back and forth and let people play with them. I fully expect to hear, at the next such event, that several of them have bought readers.
The teenagers all prefer tablets - they already knew about this stuff and were explaining to their moms and grandmas. The moms and grandmas all liked the eInk - this was an outdoor picnic type event so my readers showed to great advantage. The menfolk wouldn't get involved in the ooh and ahh fest because men only want to talk about things like that at a family gathering like that if they are the greater experts. But their wives will buy the devices - tablets for the kids and eInk for themselves, and the ereader habit will spread.
I didn't have my Nook with me to show off at this event because I loaned it to a friend and can't seem to get it back. That's the other way that ereader appreciation spreads.
(I didn't take the tablet because it's just not as portable, and I knew it wouldn't be good to read on at an outdoor event. But if I'd had it, the kids would have loved to play with it.)