I purchased a Kindle 2 about a year ago now and really enjoy it. Plugged into my
Ubuntu machine and it is detected straight away and I use Calibre (check in the
software center) to sync the bought Amazon books and the stuff I download from
the web (LOADS of features and a must have if you have an ereader). Overall I am
really happy and the B&W screen does the job. My only complaint is how it
handles PDF files, Calibre can only do so much in converting them and they never
turn out right.

I was in Borders over the holidays looking at all the latest offerings on the
e-reader front and I do not see anything available right now I want to trade up
for.

My 2 cents...if you want an e-reader then go for a B&W one, the picture is
crisp, screen not backlit so you can read no matter where the sun is at and you
can get 3 weeks out of a single charge (approx a 1 with the wi-fi on). As for
being hard on devices, I am much the same, but 2-3 years ago I discovered
"Tuff-Luv" cases and have never broken a device since, have my kindle,
smartphone and mp3 player (a sansa with Rockbox loaded!) encased with covers
from them.

If you just love reading books, go the dedicated e-reader route with B&W screen
as the colour offering are not worth the extra expense just yet IMO. If you can
stretch for something like an Kindle DX, then handling PDF's would not be as
much of an issue either.