[Timboli]

Certainly an ereader was a novelty in the beginning, and much like a toy to many.

For me though, it has always been about the benefits. It was also why, despite wanting one for many years, I wasn't impressed enough to buy one, until the Kindle Keyboard came along. Until then, they did indeed seem gimmicky, not user friendly, unreliable and prone to broken screens and not responsive enough, etc ... and most of all, too damn expensive for anything like a quality ereader.

That's not to say, there weren't good ereaders before the Kindle Keyboard, just that price often meant I rarely checked them out or were allowed to. At that point in time, you were often asked to take the device on faith, and reports on the web often showed the wisdom of not doing that.

P.S. In short, I had a strict set of criteria for an acceptable ereader, which meant it could never be a novelty to me, when I finally bought one.