The literary iPod can't write off real books

The £200 device, called a Kindle, allows users to download books to a six-inch display and will render the traditional printed book obsolete.

Well, at least that is the theory. But will the Kindle (named to evoke the crackling ignition of knowledge) really revolutionise the way we read?

In its favour, the Kindle does not run hot or make intrusive beeps. It can also change the fount size at the touch of a button and allow you to search for a key phrase or name. Very useful, I imagine, if you are doing a PhD on dentistry in Martin Amis's fiction.

However, like most computers it is no doubt apt to crash, freeze and run out of juice at key moments - what they call in the trade an electile dysfunction.

And it isn't waterproof so you can't read it in the bath or take it on the beach. In other words, like Amis's teeth, it is far from perfect.

When I fly on a plane, I take a book precisely so I don't have to speak to my fellow travellers. Will I be able to do the same with a Kindle? Or will it be banned on take-off and landing? And I doubt I would even start a book, let alone finish it, given that there are 88,000 titles available on the gadget. Options paralysis would set in. The temptation to stop and start elsewhere would simply be too great.

For me, books will always have the upper hand when it comes to visual, tactile and olfactory experiences. Nothing can compare to the sensual pleasure of printed matter. As John Updike writes in his new book Due Consideration: "The average book fits into the human hand with a seductive nestling, a kiss of texture, whether of cover cloth, glazed jacket, or flexible paperback." And that's not to mention the intoxicating smell of the binding glue.

Don't believe a word of those doomsdaymongers who say books are dead. Ian McEwan's novel On Chesil Beach has sold more than 100,000 copies in hardback and his last novel, Atonement, sold 995,475 paperbacks at the last count.

There will always be a place for books, even in a digital world. Updike argues books are vital for furnishing a room, perfect as souvenirs and provide our lives with ballast. They make us think twice about changing address and they are a good disincentive to divorce if you have a jointly acquired library.

So if you are thinking of giving someone a Kindle as a wedding present, think again. Or else you could be partly responsible for their marriage going up in smoke.