Yeah, electronic textbooks are not too bad if you can view multiple pages simultaneously, and navigate very quickly. However, no ebook reader device right now is anything like what would be ideal for textbooks. Perhaps as demand for performance goes up, we'll see either useful advancement in electrophoretics like e-ink or we'll see them replaced by superior tech.
If I want to do any reference text reading, I stick to my desktop computer with my 24" widescreen that can display two pages at roughly full size. On the go...eee pc is the closest I have to a decent reader, and it's not that great.
I remember when I first thought about ebooks many years ago and how it'd be awesome to save all that space. I thought it'd be perfect for students who need to carry a lot of books. Unfortunately, it's still just science fiction. On the upside, it good exercise to carry books.
