I bought a Kindle 2, for personal and professional use. As a personal (fiction, some non-fiction) reader, I think it’s awesome. I love it. I read more and I buy more books.

As a “professional” reader, it’s got a long way to go. The footnote as “links” feature is great for pieces where you really don’t care about the references, but when you do (as I do in much legal reading) toggling back and forth is a royal pain and slows reading *way* down. I’d rather just have them at the bottom of the page, thank you.

It’s also slow for page turning and “flipping” (another thing I frequently do when reading for work) is dreadful. You cannot easily and *quickly* flip back to another section like you can with a thumb stuck between pages.

Also, for docs which are not already available for the Kindle (think cases, filings, etc.) lack of PDF support on the Kindle 2 is a major shortcoming. I have had good luck converting docs with MobiCreator, but it’s not perfect by any means. Note: The Kindle DX has native PDF support, but I don’t have one, so I can’t speak to that.

Finally, the price break for legal books is kind of a joke, unless the experience is greatly enhanced (which just hasn’t been the case for me–yet). I buy more Kindle fiction because it’s quick, it’s easy, and the reading experience is pretty solid. I would be really reluctant to drop $200+ on a legal title that is going to be a pain-in-the-rear to read. Frankly, for what they cost, I think they should just give you a Kindle version free if you buy the print edition. Otherwise, they would need to provide a steeper discount than 20% to make up for the pain of reading a professional doc on the Kindle. Just my $.02.