(Oy, I hate when I type a good reply and close the window by accident...)
Got my wife a Kindle as an early birthday present; she's an avid reader and was often finishing a book with nothing to follow it up, and a trip to the book store (or even an Amazon browsing) was not regular (or easy) enough. The Kindle was just what I was looking for to get her; she could browse and (most importantly) sample books before buying (this was the real selling point; she reads a lot of fantasy (e.g., "Wizards First Rule", "A Feast for Crows", etc.) and she's often bought books that she didn't like after a short bit; sampling is a good hedge against that.)
I liked it so much I bought one for myself. I then discovered a number of good Kindle sites, and thankfully some of them warned me against buying public domain books via Amazon, citing sites like
Feedbooks as an excellent source for classics and other books in the public domain. For instance, I was able to get Burroughs' entire Martian Tales series (the John Carter books) there, not to mention a handful of other literary classics I haven't read since my school years (and, being older, I appreciate more).
Some other great Kindle sites you should check out:
The Kindle Reader Blog. A daily haunt; lots of great information. Be sure to scan the sidebars for sources of free books.
Feedbooks. Worth mentioning again; I've been to a lot of public domain book sites, and they seem to have the best formatting of the books.
Kindleville. New one to me; interesting and entertaining.
M-Edge. Really nice replacement if you don't like the included cover.
SFBags for Kindle. Some really nice bags, too; I like their sleeves.
MobileRead Forums. Good general forum for Kindle, as well as other eBook readers.
