I would probably go crazy with the instant gratification factor of the Kindle. Knowing I have to wait a few days for a book I see on line gives me pause, and I can consider whether I could get it from the library instead.

IMO, most online print sales are deliberate — you have a list of books, you go online, enter titles, buy books. Not so much room for impulse there.

Much of my online purchases (whether e-book or tree-book) start with Amazon recommendations – as in, I’m bored, so I’ll see if there’s anything new in that list, and then buy (though not usually from Amazon). I think lots of online stores offer just as much opportunity for browsing as a bricks-and-mortar store. And since I hate going to the mall, I rarely browse there, especially since it’s so unlikely they’ll have everything I might want in stock.

As opposed to wandering down the book aisle at Sam’s or Walmart and having books just happen to fall into my cart…

But maybe that’s just the way I think.

Print book sales have historically relied on impulse buys at point of purchase — online sales still don’t account for a huge percentage of print numbers, since that model doesn’t allow for the same sort of browsing experience as wandering through a brick-and-mortar store, or “just happening” to toss a book or three into your cart with the Tide and the frozen vegies. IMO, most online print sales are deliberate — you have a list of books, you go online, enter titles, buy books. Not so much room for impulse there.

Ebooks are another matter entirely, inextricably wedded to the online experience. Those readers are far more apt to browse online, tossing ebooks into their “carts” with the same gleeful abandon as the print book diehard tosses Harlequins and Avons into hers. The Kindle and its ilk only make those gottahaveitnow purchases even easier.

Truthfully, even with the Kindle, I think we’re in for a fairly long transitional period as we switch from primarily paper to primarily digital, for all the reasons discussed here and elsewhere. However, I’m not sure why an additional means of reading books would decrease overall sales. If anything, if a book is available in both Kindle edition and print, it should increase sales, especially from those readers who’re into it for the convenience factor, anyway. How it could be seen as a threat is beyond me.

The larger, more successful epublishers have realized they need both print and e-formats to maximize sales, by giving readers more options; so the only way I would see sales slipping would be for publishers to abandon print altogether in favor of going all digital. That, at present, would be the bad idea to end all bad ideas. But perhaps the Kindle is the device to finally take the e-revolution from niche to mainstream?

The next few years should be very telling.

But then I’ve never understood the doomsday people who say that e-readers signal the end to books.

I still read some paper, but not nearly as many. And when I get them, it’s usually an reviewer’s ARC or a freebie from a conference. Or from the used bookstore.

I just still wish that I could buy an ebook that I could read on more than one device.

Also, if I want to try and author but find the author hard to buy in Australia, an ebook is a perfect way to go for me.

I don’t see myself giving up paper entirely, but it sure saves on postage for overseas purchases.

I certainly don’t think that e-book reading devices will decrease book sales, but I’m not entirely convinced that book sales will increase dramatically either. I think it might just be a shifting.

Meanwhile, smart publishers will figure out how to add value to print books, particularly non-fiction, to encourage people to still buy print copies. There’s a lot of page layout and graphic design that enhances the reading of many of non-fiction titles that just cannot be replicated on Kindle.

Book design is not important to everybody but will spur many to keep buying print books. (Alas, that’s a market segment that is less likely to comment on blogs, so they’re underrepresented in the online conversation on this topic).

I’m much more likely to buy a paperback book at the grocery, WalMart or from Amazon on line. Now if I see or read about something I’ll like, I head to amazon to download it NOW. Now that’s an impulse buy that doesn’t require my getting into my car, wasting gas and time driving to a bookstore.

I do not miss holding a physical book at all and find it comfortable and efficient to read on my Kindle. I recently read a hard copy of a book and kept thinking, “How awkward is this?” I am trying very hard to work my way through a large TBR pile that I accumulated pre-Kindle but it is tough. I admit to purchasing more than one Kindle edition of a book in my TBR pile, and I have methodically started to add Kindle versions of some of my all-time favorite keepers if and when they become available. So I am definitely buying more, not less, than I did in the past. My only frustration is that not every single book I want to buy is available in a Kindle format. I live for the day that is not the case!

I also have multiple copies of some books. If I really liked an ebook, I get it in print form as well.

My hands have gotten spoiled with the convenience of one-handed reading, one-button push for page turns. My eyes have gotten spoiled with the convenience of reading in the dark (which is now my favorite way to read).

Yes, I’ve been fighting the purchase, because I do love my paper books, but . . . watching the trees fall in my home province, while discovering that most all of the titles I want are now available online, I’m sold on this technology. No Kindles in Canada yet though, so I’m leaning toward the Sony.

I don’t know how it will affect my book buying habits–I do buy books on impulse–but I can’t imagine buying fewer books when they are so instantly available.