That said, the new commercials for the Kindle are taking the 'proving books obsolete' route -- they made me laugh, and not in the funny ha-ha way. In the 'wow this is pitiful' way.
Exhibit A:
Wh-what? The page/screen visibility thing I get. But the superiority of the computerized place saver? Please. From the dawn of time, humans have been cringing at the thought of creasing their books, and for this neurotic population, the bookmark was invented. The bookmark is the unsung hero of literature. The bookmark is the book equivalent of an iPod skin or a keychain. I have a whole collection of great bookmarks, and none of them work with a Kindle. All of them, however, are as effective as a computerized place saver. Come to think of it, so is corner-folding, for all you barbarians.
Exhibit B:
We can already sit on our butts all day and get anything we could ever want or need with a credit card number and a click of a mouse. Heaven forbid we have to venture outside our caves for anything. Bookstores are awesome! Avid readers (who, I can only assume, given the nature of the product, are Kindle's target market) know the joy and relaxation that comes from browsing in a good bookstore for an hour. You walk in on a whim and come out with a whole new world. Or, like the lady in the commercial, you walk in on a specific hunt, and who knows? You find what you're looking for and buy it, or find what you're looking for, figure out you're not really interested anyway, and get something else, or maybe forget your first book entirely and get something different. Perhaps a local author is there for a signing. Then maybe you sit outside in a park and read.
Or you could download it in a minute from your armchair, and don't go anywhere for the rest of the day.
Exhibit C:
Okay, don't even try to convince me that people just can't carry all the reading material they wish they could. Who needs everything with them all the time? Nobody. And who switches between several books enough times per day to warrant carrying them all on your person? This is hardly a reason to ditch books in favour of Kindle.
And who are we kidding about concern over carrying lots of stuff? If I made my book thinner and a little lighter, I would just see that as an opportunity to cram more things into my giant bag (knitting!).
Headdesk, headdesk, long live the paperback, etc, etc. Paper books aren't going anywhere for a good long time (which is more than can be said for the digital copies of them, even after you've bought them -- but that's a whole 'nother issue ;) ).
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