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While I sympathize with people who don't want to be interrupted in their reading and we all feel sure that the readers with e-Ink screens won't cause any problem in "sleep" mode instead of shut down, the rules do not make exceptions. On tonight's flight, the flight attendants not only made people turn off their noise-canceling headphones, but they made everyone remove the headsets, ear buds, etc. -- so they could hear the safety announcements.
The regulation applies to between 14,000 feet and the ground. At take-off, there's a "bing" when the plane goes above 14,000 feet -- that's the signal to the flight attendant that he or she can make the announcement about it now being safe to turn on approved devices. Since they are sometimes busy, I have sometimes opened up my reader -- or even my laptop -- soon after I hear the bing, even if they haven't made the verbal announcement. For landing, it's more difficult to know exactly when you descend lower than 14,000 feet, so just obey the instructions of the flight attendant.
It's a minor inconvenience to shut down the reader for take-off and landing. If you really cannot sit quietly without something to distract you, take a paper book as well as your reader. If you enjoy short fiction, a collection of short stories would allow you to finish a story before you return to whatever you're reading on your electronic device. Or how about a puzzle book (sudoku anyone?) or comics? As others have mentioned, this is a good time to peruse the airline magazine -- unless you fly so frequently that you've already read it 3 times.
An electronic book reader is a blessing for travel -- you have plenty to read with negligible weight.
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