For me its two fold, I like the e-ink screen as it's really easy on my eyes instead of the typical monitor, especailly for long periods of reading (so far i've used the Kindle for about a 4 hour stretch and it was quite different then a usual LCD screen). But the big advantage is the sheer volume of material that I can store thats separate from my usual electronic devices which is mainly my work pc's.

I am too in the computer industry and have a large number of reference material that I go through and use quite often; Making notes in the margins etc. I am finding that I need this stuff when I am out of the office which is where my mini library is. Its just easier to carry one device instead of a couple reference materials with me at any one given time.

I like the sony devices as I can hand write notes and highlight at will (from my understanding). Two things I do quite often with books.

As for novels, yeah I probably will have a few on there for general time killing, but thats not my primary use of the device.