I'm 25 and love the Iliad. My laptop is great, but even with 2 batteries it's limited to 7 hours away from a plug socket. With the Iliad I can read for 15hours without straining my eyes or burning my lap. I don't disturb other people with fan noise every few minutes and I can read in peace (except for people wanting to have a look at it
) I have the choice of hundreds of books, my notes, manuals and reasearch with me at all times. If I worked in an office with mains power and rarely travelled to visit friends, relatives etc then maybe I wouldn't see the point, perhaps this is the case with this young lady?