Why I Won't Buy an iPad -- Yet

I've been a gadget freak since I was a kid. My dad had a workshop in the basement of our house and I loved to watch him build and fix things. Some of my best memories are of accompanying him to the hardware store or Radio Shack to pick up supplies. Over the years, the objects of my gadget lust became increasingly sophisticated: first a desktop computer, then a laptop, then an even more lightweight laptop, then one of the first iPods, a BlackBerry, a Kindle.

Much as I love all of these excuses to avoid real work, I have begun to feel the weight of my possessions lately – especially when I have to lug them around in my handbag. And I think I'm not alone.

When the much-hyped iPad was recently introduced to an ostensibly gadget-hungry public, I noticed a surprising lack of enthusiasm among the once ferocious early adopters of our generation. "I'm waiting for iPad 2.0," says one friend. Another just bought a new MacBook Air and is reluctant to shell out more for another Apple product. Still another told me she would feel almost disloyal to her Kindle if she started reading books on the iPad instead.

Perhaps we have all been pushed to buy one gadget too many – no matter how much we lust after the Next Big Thing. Recently, on a long airplane ride, I nervously held my Kindle in my lap, waiting for the official OK to turn on electronic equipment. The minutes ticked by ever so slowly and I found myself yearning for a much lower tech and much older gadget – the Next Big Thing from way back in the 1400s – a book.