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I purchased a Kindle for myself around the beginning of the year.  The honeymoon was amazing.  I could carry around a virtual library, that was able to give me anything for which I had a whim.  My digital library ballooned, as I weighed the marginal value of owning a digital copy versus a physical copy against the convenience of having the book available anywhere I had my phone, computer access or, of course, my Kindle.

The ability to make notes on the literature, and be able to retrieve those quotes at a whim easily outweighed the occasional impulse buy that resulted from finishing a book and being led to a 'You may also like' screen.  Measurements of battery life are counted in days, not hours; a full charge lasting almost a month with regular daily use.  If anyone asked, I simply told them that I loved my Kindle.

Then, it broke.

I placed it into my backpack daily and for months it was not a problem.  Then one morning I pulled the electronic tome from it's pocket to find a crack running across its e-Paper screen.  Suddenly, all of the hundreds of dollars of books I had purchased became 'inconveniently available'.  Of course I could access them from my phone, killing the battery, or from my computer when I was planted firmly infront of it.  It was then that I realized that there was a distinct disadvantage to the Kindle platform: It breaks.

Of course, you are able to physically destroy a book.  Although, making an entire book unreadable takes considerable effort.  Most often the edges are molested, or a page or two removed and very rarely is the entire book rendered unreadable.  Amazon's crafty lock-in never really bothered me, as I usually keep my books.  My only lost book is one lent to a friend and never returned, and the difference between the digital and physical was never an issue with me.  Although, after my original Kindle was rendered inoperable, the careless act of destruction coupled with the vendor lock in required me to purchase another Kindle.

To Amazon's credit they made the exercise  extraordinarily painless.  I purchased the lowest-end kindle from the store Tuesday morning and even with the make-it-happen shipping price, I had my new kindle in my hands the very next day for $100.  I've paid more for a textbook.