eReaders taking over the world (?)

So I'm not entirely convinced that all of the eReaders coming out are as cool an idea as they're getting promulgated to be. There must be at least 6 or 7 main readers out and the ones I find most compelling aren't offered by the major eBook sellers, e.g. B&N and Amazon.

The iRex iLiad is the coolest of the bunch with a Wacom touch screen that allows you to actually read and write and markup a text just like you might with a paper version. This option I think is really cool as I would love to markup a lot of the books I read for quotes and ideas I find compelling but don't because I have this built-in mental block to markings of any kind in my personal non-scholastic text books. The problem with the iRex model is that it isn't attached to any big eBook seller. Doh! A great reader that doesn't have the convenience of the Nook or the Kindle? Yeah. Not going to buy it.

The other issue I have with eReaders is that it's yet ANOTHER damn thing I need to charge. Between charging my iPod, my iShuffle, my Blackberry, and my iBook, it's yet another device that requires I keep an eye on battery life and plug it in.

Of course there are the protective covers, to keep the screen in decent shape and the folio cover to protect the casing. All this because if I spill something on it or drop it, I might be spending another $250+ to replace it. If I drop my $2 clearance copy from 1/2 Priced Books, I just dust it off, dry it out and walk on. The annoyance factor of me damaging my eReader compared to damaging my $2 book is the same ratio as $125:$1 or $250:$1 or $350:$1 depending on the eReader. And did I mention that I don't have to charge my book? (That's a big one for me.)

And what about cost? eReaders are more expensive but then let's say you want digital copies of your current library so you don't have to house, dust, or move the damn things. Good luck. Some of my books are esoteric enough they were rare finds even in used book stores. B&N sells digital editions of the copyright-expired classics for $5. There are places where they are free but B&N doesn't show a Free eBook listing on their website. Amazon offers some for a penny or so, but how much Charles Dickens and Jane Austen can one read?

If you like comic books, you're SoL. No color screen and I think printed-page artwork is lost when it goes to digital media but that's a completely different topic for discussion.

Where I see eReaders really making headway would be at the college level where textbooks could be downloaded and maintained on an eReader. No need to lug a huge pile of books around and having the ability to mark and annotate your text (a la the iRex way) would have been a godsend when I was in university. Add the ability to search and download library books and you can all but forget needing to search the graduate stacks to find the book you need or pull the microfiche of some old newspaper article. It'll be all there for the downloading. Of course study areas will now need to support banks upon banks of power strips so every student could charge their iPod, iPhone, laptop and eReader, because we all know this wouldn't be America if we had one frigging device that would allow us to do all of those things - actually we do and they're called laptop computers. Why can't they put the eInk technology in a laptop and call it good? A tablet PC would suit this role perfectly. The Netbooks are moving in that direction but screen sizes are *too* small.

Lastly, what happens when all information and access to it is controlled by the corporations that produce it? Some would say they already do but with books you can't just remove information from the general populace with a quick Delete command. Interestingly Fahrenheit 451 isn't sold as an eBook on Amazon.