David Carnoy asks, "Does the Kindle pay for itself?"

Link to November 29 CNET News post.

Excerpt: Put succinctly, it's that old the-more-you-spend-the-more-you-save line of reasoning, and this reader, who estimates that she buys about 20 hardcovers a year, says she expects to pocket about $100 the first year after moving to an e-reader. At 18 months, she'll break even on her Kindle Wi-Fi and gets the added bonus of downloading all those free classics that are readily available in the Kindle Store.

Of course, the big counter-argument comes from all those folks who buy used instead of new--or get hand-me-downs from friends and family--and often spend very little on their paper books. Also, I've seen many a CNET message board post proclaiming the virtues of the local library, where you can, after all, check books out for free. The disciples of this philosophy bring a freegan approach to reading, and more power to them.  [Emphasis added.]

[snip]

Perhaps the more telling statistic is one offered up by Amazon. It says that its customers buy 3.3 times as many books after buying a Kindle. Yes, there may be some savings mixed in there somewhere, but I tend to be a believer that the more you buy the more you spend. That's not a bad thing, especially when it comes to books, but unless you're super disciplined, your Kindle won't be paying for itself. Not in my book anyway.

Related articles:
Need to repair that ebook reader?  (11/19/2010)
Who uses an ereader:  Survey says....  (9/22/2010)
Book industry wrestles with print vs. pixels.  (9/2/2010)
Coming soon to a screen near you:  Ads in ebooks.  (8/20/2010)
Ebooks now comprise 8/5% of book sales. (8/12/2010)
Genre paperback publishers drops print.  (8/6/2010)
Ebooks and libraries.  (5/4/2010)
Ebooks eliminate a free form of adversiting:  the book jacket.  (3/31/2010)
Ebooks: another round of false promises?  (3/19/2010)
The skinny on ebooks.  (3/8/2010)
Hardcover vs. ebook:  Breaking down the costs.  (3/1/2010)