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My own switch to e-books was not entirely voluntary. I'ts still nice to be able to browse a bookstore and get used books, but that has become very difficult in the last 5 years or so. The reason is that I have picked up some kind of allergic sensitivity to newsprint, cheap acidic papers, and many kinds of inks. This means I can't read 95% of new paperbacks, almost all aged paperbacks, and 50% of hardcovers without getting athsma and swollen eyes within a few minutes.
The problem started with older paperbacks with yellowed pages, as the acidic paper self-destructed into dust. This was followed by issues with the cheap, smelly inks used in a lot of paperbacks. Then certain kinds of paper and especially newsprint. Now, it even affects some magazines and books printed on fine, glossy paper (I suspect this is because of something in the ink or the sizing used to make the paper glossy).
My only remedy has been a collection of book covers, ranging from cut-open page protectors to sheets of anti-reflection coated glass. These make reading awkward and don't entirely eliminate the problem. So reading was getting limited to a few magazines and new hardcover books, not all of which were good either (Baen seems the worst for having cheap paper in their hardcovers).
So it was a long-anticipated experiment that could be tried once the critical mass of e-books was reached and the Sony Reader became available. I have been able to read significantly more since getting it, but it is still not an optimal experience. I would say that less than 50% of what I want to read is available, and all of the books I've collected are off-limits (and will until these are re-released in text form). There are encouraging signs that many out-of-print books will become available this way, assuming the publishing lobby doesn't manage to crush pioneers like Google's efforts.
Compared to reading physical books, I have no allergy problems with the reader (other than the cover that came with it, which did cause problems). It's readability is not as good under the dim lighting conditions I can tolerate compated to a real book. On the other hand, assuming the book is available in a modifiable format, I can increase text size to be readable, unlike books. It's bizzare how publisghers have started to use really odd, rather unreadable fonts in some books, maybe trying for some artistic ideal. I managed to get through S.M. Stirling's "Summerlands" trilogy recently, despite the small, thim font with punctuation marks half the size of the rest of the text, but even in hardcover it was a matter of holding the book 12 inches away).
So I'm looking forward to more ebooks, better readers and all that. Still, 90% of the written word remains off-limits without elaborate precautions, which really removes the spontinaity of reading. It's harder to explore an e-book than a physical book (at least on the Reader) and I don't want to read from a computer screen as U've never found a laptop that is portable as even the most awkward hardcovers.
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