I've read voraciously since I was 4, and I am a bit of a reactionary;  so I approached the Kindle with some skepticism.  Having actually used one for a while, I can say that it really has its place -- even if it's not going to replace a real book any time soon.

There are a few different flavors of Kindle.  I have the Touch Wifi, which is a touch screen, E-ink reader with wi-fi connectivity (but no 3G like a smartphone).  E-ink displays black print on a white background with no back-light.  Unlike your usual computer screen, you can read an E-ink screen in daylight;  in fact, you need an external light to be able to read it.  (This is a bit of a nuisance in bed.)  The screen is a bit slow to respond, but it's no slower than turning a page in a paper book.  Once I got the font size where I wanted it, the screen was easy to read and I quickly got used to it.

I find that the Kindle really shines in a few situations:
- on the road.  I can pack the Kindle and maybe one or two books, instead of trying to fit 2 weeks worth of paperbacks somewhere in my luggage (never mind hardbacks!).
- reading in bed.  The need for an external light is non-ideal, but the small size and easy handling mostly makes up for it.
- reading while eating something messy.  :-)  This sounds weird, but you can turn a page with an elbow if you have to, and you don't need to worry about leaving permanent grease marks on the pages.
- reading bargain books.  I am more willing to take a chance on a $1 or $2 Kindle book than a paper bargain book, and it's a lot easier to find a Kindle bargain that I might want to read than a paper bargain.  If the book is any good, I win, and if it's junk, I just delete it.

I had no problems setting up the Kindle for my home wi-fi, and battery life is good;  I have no idea how long the battery lasts because I've never run it down to dead.  (To extend the charge, just turn off the wi-fi if you aren't using it.)

So, what's wrong with it?  a few minor things, and one seriously annoying problem (that's not the hardware's fault).
- The reading interface isn't particularly clever and it's not easy to move to a particular page in the book.
- It's way too easy to spend $$$$ on books.  (ahem.)
- The external light thing is a pain sometimes.  (The flip side of course is that you can read on the beach on a sunny day with no problems at all.)
- The "Collections" feature is of limited use, because when you move a book to a collection, it still shows in the main book list!  (so what was the point of putting it in a collection?)

The really big problem is finding books in the Amazon Kindle store.  The store interface is, to put it kindly, garbage.  You basically have to know what you want before you go looking for it;  any search that returns more than a dozen or so books is useless, because the filters are worthless:  you can filter by sub-category, customer rating, or release date, and that's it.  You can't filter or even sort by anything useful, like author or title!  (You can sort by popularity, average review score, or publication date -- why?  You can't even sort by price!)  And unfortunately, the regular web-browser Amazon store isn't much better.
 
There are other things you can do with the Kindle, like hook it up to a computer as a device, and have it read audio books.  I've not tried either capability yet and can't say how well they work.
 

Recommended: Yes