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WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) -- After using Amazon's Kindle 2 for a few weeks, I won't think of reading or "e-books" in the same light again.

When Amazon.com Inc. Chief Executive Jeff Bezos unveiled the updated Kindle in February, he said his goal was to revolutionize reading for the first time since the Gutenberg printing press was invented in the 1400s. An audacious goal, to be sure, but Bezos is onto something.

Simply put, the Kindle makes reading easier and more fun and it allows the habitual reader to, well, read more.

E-books also open up a host of new possibilities -- saving newspapers, for example -- and could reshape the media and publishing industries just like MP3s transformed the traditional music business.

Yet such sweeping changes won't happen quite that fast or penetrate as deeply. Even though people are somewhat used to reading on electronic screens, book and reading habits are deeply ingrained. Just in their infancy, e-readers also have notable shortcomings.

The second-generation Kindle 2, for example, is much better than the original, but it lacks color; also the screen is small, it's somewhat fragile and functions are limited. Then there's the sticker shock: $359. Sony charges a similar amount for a competing device.

E-readers will remain a niche product until the price is right -- at least half of their current cost. Universal adoption probably would mean prices that seem unimaginable now, perhaps as little as $20.

Portability to the max

What initially struck me about the Kindle is how easy it is to hold. The device itself is just 10.2 ounces, though its weight exceeds 16 ounces, or one pound, after the protective book jacket (sold separately) is added. Still, the Kindle is much lighter and easier to position than a thick paperback or hardcover, and you don't have to hold the pages open.

Text looks great on the black-and-white screen -- almost like printed ink -- but does not cause eye strain like computers do. In some ways, the Kindle seems easier to read than a printed book, depending on the lighting. The one drawback is occasional glare on the screen that requires users to alter their reading angle.

The device doesn't have many bells and whistles, but a few truly stand out. First is the ability to download book samples for free. Amazon is quite generous. I read the first two or three chapters of several samples; I liked one so much that I bought the book.

Simply put, I'll spend more if I can read samples first. Once I decided I liked a title, I was hooked. No waiting to go to the library the next day to see if my local branch had it on the shelf.

The reason customers don't have to wait is because the Kindle connects automatically to Sprint Nextel Corp.'s wireless network. It takes less than a minute to download a book and start reading. Nothing like instant gratification.

The fact that Amazon usually charges much less -- sometimes 50% below list price -- for digital-book downloads makes it easier to justify a purchase. Most books cost $10 or less.

Debate over 'free' speech

My favorite feature, which happens to be the only controversial one, is the text-to-speech function. Some authors say it deprives them of royalties they would accrue if their books were reproduced in audible form.

Such a position is self-defeating. Few readers pay double to buy a text and an audio version of the same book. Most books are not available in audio format anyway.

To defuse the controversy, Amazon says it will disable the text function upon request from publishers. Frankly, I would refuse to buy the work of authors who ask Amazon to disable the text-to-speech function. Is this what authors and publishers really want?

What text-to-speech offers is tremendous flexibility and more time to learn. I use the feature while preparing dinner or driving. On my treadmill, I increase the font to its biggest size and turn on the speech function. I can listen to the book while I run and glance at the big lettering if the automated voice mispronounces a word, as it sometimes does. (Kindle, for example, goofs up on the name of our new president.)

The result: I can finish a book faster -- and then buy another one. Authors might want to encourage that.

While the speech function is much better than I expected, it's still not good enough for fans of audiobooks. The automated voice naturally sounds robotic and cannot be "trained" to fix errors. It's merely a complementary tool for the regular reader, though it's extremely useful for the blind.

The ability to increase point size is also invaluable for those with poor eyesight, especially older people. Even someone like me with perfect vision finds this very useful. I make the type smaller when I sit still and larger when I am on the move.

Indeed, the pencil-thin Kindle is a pleasure to read almost anywhere. Unlike a bound book, you can easily hold it and flip pages with just one hand. It's great for cabs, airports, subways and so forth.

What's not to like? My biggest complaint is lack of selection. Amazon now offers 260,000 titles, mostly the newest or most popular ones, and the list grows every day. Yet most of the nonfiction books I want to buy are not available digitally yet.

More broadly, e-readers kindle the ongoing debate about who owns digital media and whether consumers can copy it or lend to others. That issue also roiled the music industry.

Spreading the word

Some critics say there's little appetite among most consumers to add another electronic device to their cache of smart phones, cameras and MP3 devices. They believe the Kindle has to add more functions such as email, texting or color -- possibilities that Amazon is or has explored.

Yet products designed for reading offer a clear advantage: size. It's easier to read on a dedicated e-book like the Kindle, with its 6-inch screen, than on the smaller display of an iPhone or BlackBerry.

What's more, e-reader screens are getting bigger. Amazon reportedly is working on a larger Kindle that could be released in time for Christmas. Media giants News Corp. and Gannett Inc. say they plan to adopt e-readers designed for newspapers, with screens as large as an 81/2- by 11-inch sheet of paper. (News Corp. owns The Wall Street Journal and MarketWatch, the publisher of this report.)

The old media industry and newfangled e-reader market could represent an ideal match. The rise of the Internet has undercut the ad-driven business model of newspapers and forced them to look for 21st-century alternatives. If subscribers migrated to e-readers, publishers could slash heavy costs for paper, printing and delivery.

Amazon already sells subscriptions to major papers such as the New York Times and The Wall Street Journal, where customers receive new issues wirelessly every night. No need to go searching outside each morning for the daily news.

What if the Times or Journal took a page from the playbook of AT&T Inc. , which heavily subsidizes customers who buy an iPhone? They could subsidize the purchase of a Kindle or other e-reader if subscribers agreed to a annual contract and accepted the occasional pop-up ad.

Amazon could also seed its own future by striking deals with textbook publishers to put all their books in digital form. Amazon could offer a sharp discount to students who bought a Kindle, so long as they purchased digital textbooks via its Web site. I would have loved an e-reader during college instead of lugging around huge textbooks. (The savings would have been huge -- and that's not counting the environmental benefits. Think of all the trees saved or fuel not burned if most publications were distributed digitally.)

It's really not hard to imagine a future in which e-readers supplant ink and paper, much like CDs and MP3 downloads drove vinyl records and cassette tapes to near extinction. Just keep in mind: The transition from stereo albums to CDs took about 50 years.