Are e-Readers for Me?

Today I walked into the Barnes and Noble bookstore in Jacksonville and tried out one of their demonstration models of The Nook electronic reader. I left more puzzled than ever as to why I would want to buy it.

For one, there are The Nook, Kindle, and iPad competing against each other in the e-reader market. What would happen if I were to invest in one of the readers that fizzled into extinction? Also, so what if I can download thousands of books onto my reader: for one, that means that I spent TENS of thousands of dollars on downloaded books and two, when am I going to find the time to read all of this stuff? Plus, I already have a FREE alternative to e-readers: the public library. I can look up a book online in the library's catalog and have it placed on hold at the branch library closest to me. When it's ready for pickup, I'll be notified. Then I can check it out for four weeks, with two renewals possible. And if they don't have the specific title I want? I can place a purchase suggestion, and they will in all probability buy it and have it ready for my checkout in the span of a few weeks.

There are other questions I have about e-readers, chief among them the portability of my purchases. I could see the feasibility of purchasing downloaded books if I were able to transfer them to newer e-readers or my home computer. What if I lose my e-reader or it becomes irreparably damaged? What happens to my purchased downloads on it and can they be replaced?

And what about the overwhelming amount of books that are out of print? E-readers are useless, unless of course those out-of-print books are eventually digitalized as well (this did happen with out-of-"print" musical records that became digitalized for computer and MP3 downloading).

I don't reject the idea of e-readers outright, but I am still a bit skeptical of their usefulness. For me right now, at least. Should my above-expressed concerns be addressed to my satisfaction in the future, though, I'm sure my opinion will change. But in the meantime, I am already swimming in abundant and quality reading material!