While Amazon pushes everyone and their mom to get their hands on the latest Kindle available, Apple insiders have concocted rumors that the company has joined the eReader party with its supposed tablet that will be released four months from now and will look pretty much like a giant iPod Touch.

eReaders were invented to supposedly make reading more convenient and accessible for its users. It’s a portable device in which you can download entire books, newspapers and magazines through a wi-fi signal or 3G network for a price. It is a vision that Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos can’t stop maniacally laughing about for some odd reason. Check out the video of his appearance on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart (below).

In an article that ought to wipe that smile off Bezos’ face, novelist Nicholson Baker recently wrote for the New Yorker on his disappointing experience using the Kindle 2. Since most of the New Yorker’s reading audience are the same people who might end up getting a Kindle if they haven’t already, this is quite a blow to Amazon.

On top of this, there has also been that incident involving the erasure of a version of George Orwell’s 1984 from all existing Kindles due to a copyright debacle with the publisher. It’s a scary feeling to know that books can be erased while we’re asleep. This conjures memories of Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 and the simplifying of information by getting rid of all the books known to man.

I’m sure I’m not alone in believing that silicon and plastic could never completely substitute for paper and hardcover bindings. There’s a certain aura that comes with reading an actual book with which you can flip actual pages, not through a machine that won’t let you turn a page when it runs out of battery. If it ain’t broke, why fix it?