I've bought 2 ebooks. One for Kindle, one for iBooks. I can't seem to force myself to use the kindle app long enough to finish DIYU. On the other hand, I'm really enjoying Medium Raw in iBooks.
But I can't imagine I'll be "buying" another ebook for a long time. They're awkward. The digital tools that would make digital books worth the hassle, most notably copy and paste, are disabled via DRM.
And ebooks don't offer analogs for the best parts of the experience of owning and reading dead-trees books. I can't write in an ebook. I can't dog-ear corners. I can't flip back and forth. I can't compare passages in different sections (or books) easily. I can't slip pieces of paper in between pages. I can't hand an ebook to my wife to read, or to a colleague. I can't loan my copy to someone. I can't give it away when I'm done. I can't leave it in an airport for someone to find and read on their own trip.
Ebooks don't feel right. They don't smell right. They're still not ready for prime time. I'm not sure they will be.
A book isn't merely a vector for transmission of words. It's a tangible artifact, carefully constructed and shared with the reader. Ebooks abstract the content away from the presentation too much. They're just text.
**Update**: [Stephen Downes continued the train of thought](http://www.downes.ca/post/52824), having finished reading all science fiction worth reading. From Stephen's post:
> Having the books there isn't just the having of some text on file; it's a form of iconography. They are reminders of an accomplishment. It's not that I want to take notes in them or dog-ear them, I just want to see them and remember having read them.
Absolutely. I had the same shelves of past-read scifi novels (Evan has many of them now on his own shelf). Not for dog earing, but to have. To cherish. Sorted by author, then date. Something you **can** do with an eBook, if you pick up the eBook reader, and launch the library app. *It's just not the same*.