Is anyone familiar with the Kindle? Apparently my brother has a book published only for Kindle and my mom is all fired up to read it and has been peppering me with questions about the Kindle. I know nothing about them and have not had a desire to purchase one. My sense of it is, the technology is so new, it'll go through massive changes over the next several years and its not worth the investment right now. Especially for someone like my mother who refuses to spend ANY money on books--even at a used bookstore--and prefers to use the library.

So...is the Nook the same thing? Or is it another Hi Def DVD vs Blue Ray or VHS vs Beta thing where one version of the technology will win out over the other?

I've looked on Ebay, but the prices are not much lower than a new one right now. Is there a way to get one for a better price?

And do bestsellers tend to get an electronic release at the same time as the paper version, or do you have to wait?

Aside from the issue of regular books taking up a lot of space, I'm really trying to see the advantage of an electronic book reader, even for someone who is an avid reader.