NET RESULTS:While the notion of using an e-reader never appealed, I decided one day to take the plunge

I HAVE a bit of a thing about books. Print books. Lovely, tactile, creamy-papered books.

I like new ones that smell of fresh ink and bindings. I love musty, aged leather volumes illustrated with engravings covered with little pieces of tissue paper. I especially adore finding old books in obscure second-hand bookshops.

One of my most glorious bookish moments was finding 37 volumes – illustrated and hand numbered – of a 19th century edition of the works of Irish novelist Charles Lever in a basement bookshop in Wisconsin. I bought the lot for $50.

I have many others I treasure: a 1930s edition of Moby Dickwith wonderful wood-engraved illustrations; a surprisingly heavy 1909 copy of Mark Twain's Life on the Mississippi; and eerily, a nondescript little book I pulled out of a packed shelf of second-hand reads in Dublin's George's Street arcade one day on a sudden whim. I couldn't read the title, and have no idea why I selected it – but found that the name inscribed on the flyleaf in a young boy's hand a hundred years before, was "Ivan Lillington".

I love them, my dear print friends. Nothing is more satisfying than to be curled up in a comfortable armchair on a rainy day, hardback in hand, cup of tea nearby, with all of them lining the walls around me.

So the idea of using an electronic device to read a book had, frankly, never appealed though I have watched the development – or not – of a market for them over the previous decade. Several times I’ve written stories about analyst predictions that this year – be it 2001, 2003, 2007 – would be the year when the e-book and e-reader at last took off.

But they didn’t. It’s only in the last year their time has finally come. Whenever I travel now, I see people with e-readers – on planes, on trains, on ferries. Amazon says it sells more e-books than hardback books.

I found myself considering e-readers after yet another holiday trip dithering over which paperbacks to bring. Bag weight limits mean fewer book companions. I began to envy those people on the plane with hundreds of books on their slim e-readers.

I decided to take the plunge after a few conversations with friends and acquaintances during which they raved about their e-readers. They loved the size, the lightness, the ability to buy a book via a wireless or free 3G connection quickly when they travel, the pleasure of having lots and lots of virtual books to hand, all the time.

Soon, I found myself opening up a box with a Kindle in it. Several weeks later, I can see what my friends were on about. I didn’t expect to like it. And it did take some time getting used to pressing buttons to scroll forward and back (though touch versions are available in Kindles and other brands), having a graph showing the percentage of the book read rather than a page number, and simply holding something not very book-like, reading a screen.

I began not just to like it, but to feel real affection for it. I found that the e-Ink screen is comfortable to read, indoors and outdoors. I liked how I could increase or reduce the typeface to whatever suited me best.

Buying books was indeed a breeze, and incredibly fast – they download in about a minute, often less. There’s a whole community of readers to interact with, if desired – you can turn on a feature that lets you read other people’s annotations, and you can read readers’ comments about the books themselves (Amazon prompts you to leave a comment when you reach the final page of an e-book).

I bought a nice little embossed leather cover for it (you will want some sort of cover to protect the screen of any e-reader, and of course, there’s a thriving market in such accessories). Now, it truly seems a kind of magic to have a little leather book whose contents change at the touch of a button.

I never thought I would want an e-reader. But it has become one of the few electronic devices I use regularly. I love getting on the plane with just my e-reader, knowing I can buy 10 more books if I want while on holiday and not have to jettison clothes or shoes to make room for them.

All that said, I have discovered my book buying now has a kind of hierarchy. Some books I want to own in physical form, such as the fat new set of Haruki Murakaminovels. Others, I am happy to download in virtual form.

Some people opt for both. It seems there is a trend for people to first get the e-book, and then, buy the hard copy if it is a read they particularly enjoy. According to the Daily Telegraph, there's another trend – for people to download guilty pleasure trashy novels to their e-readers and get the worthy books they never actually read for their bookshelves, where they can impress visitors.

With a nice selection of e-readers out there, and some, such as the Kindle, dropping its price and adding new models, it’s a good time to consider giving one a try, or to buy one as a gift for a book lover.

Like me, you may find yourself pleasantly surprised, and hooked.