I got a Kindle for Christmas. Actually, I got a gift card and chose a Kindle for myself. It arrived yesterday and so far I like it. It seems like a great way to have the joy of words at hand on the go.
I chose for my first download a novel available only as an e-book. As I get a few chapters in, I'll share about that here. The first chapter is good stuff!
But I want the dusty books in my house to know something …
I still love you.
I have always loved books. I was that kind of kid. Not a real serious loner bookworm type, but I liked to read. And I enjoyed the tactile there-ness of books, their colors and sizes, shapes and weight and the smell of paper. I think I always will.
We creatives shouldn't stop making books, when we can. But we should be willing to try new methods of conveying and communicating our thoughts as well.
So I hope we enjoy the new alternatives as a broadening and enhancement of our love of language, and remember that a book can be art in itself. As Stephen King says, writing and reading can be a kind of telepathy.
It's all good, in all its many forms.
Here's a little video, celebrating books.
Metaphor 
Interesting post, Kyle. I've thought about an e-reader of some kind, especially for travel. But as you so well pointed out, we develop an intimacy with a book that is visceral.How many books on a vacation am I going to read? One? At best. (I read slowly and savoringly). Hence, the e-reader is moot. I can carry one book no problem. The feel, the smell, the artwork—we subsume it as we read the story, begin an intimate relationship with it that unfolds for the duration of the read. How many details emerge from a good cover, an image that wraps around the spine, the dust-jacket notes on the back, the praises left by noteworthy people found there that in the beginning have no meaning and come to either bear witness or miss the mark?On the other hand, once a book is completed storage space must then be afforded and, well, boxes and shelves later, we're dragging around our entire literary history with us, place to place.Like you, I love books. I can't see myself getting cuddly with a Kindle, but hey, who knows? Maybe I might grow accustomed to it and come to prefer it's portability and range—"It's got tone of books in there!"But I doubt it. I'm a slave to paper and cardboard and glossy-covered tomes, I'm afraid, unto the end of my days. Or is that daze?Enjoy and keep us informed of any contextual changes in your experience.