Ebooks are starting to take root in our cultural psyche. With Amazon’s announcement that they are lowering the price of their Kindle to $259 in a bid to spur holiday sales, Google and Apple are also announcing their plans to come up with their own eBook devices.

The Kindle stores about 1,500 books, which is probably enough for any avid reader, and new releases cost $9.99 a pop. The machine itself is lighter than a paperback book. And you don’t have to go running around looking for an internet connection to download books. The thing comes fully equipped with its own wireless connection so you can download books anywhere, anytime, in about 60 seconds.

I quake and quiver when I think of the future of book outlets like Border’s and Barnes and Noble, and here in Israel about סטימצקי and צמת ספרים, though I don’t think they’ll be going out of business any time soon. But they will certainly have to adapt if they want to stay relevant.

Back to details though – the battery lasts long enough to read for days without recharging, and it reads like real paper with no glare, even in bright sun.

The question will be, are people willing to give up the feel of a book of paper in their hands when they read? I, for one, am not sure I’d be comfortable giving up the paperback. I would certainly be willing to use both – the Kindle for travel, the book for home, or something of the sort. The other question is, How is this on the eyes?

If it’s anything like a computer screen that turns your eyes red after staring at it for hours, I’m not interested. If they can get it right that your eyes aren’t so bothered, then we have a deal.

Ah – and listen to this. Kindle can read to you. So you don’t even have to read anymore. This worries me. Ever since phones stored numbers, people have forgotten how to remember phone numbers. Are we all going to become illiterate now? I guess only time will tell.