Is Amazon Kindle as "robust" as iPods?

I wrote in my previous post: What the FUCK is it with Apple music stuff? that I'm pretty much done with Apple now that they've screwed me over time and time again: me buying into the hype that iPods are the best music players, Macs are the best computers, iPhones are the best cell phones, iTunes is the best way to buy music.

And what did I get for this? An iPod that broke, then hosed my Dell desktop computer's motherboard at the same time, no way now to play any of the dozen or so songs I've purchased through the iTunes store, and a G4/G5 iMac that now is pretty much worthless because I bought it JUST before Apple moved to the Intel platform and nixed the G4/G5. (Not to mention that it'll cost me around $400 just to upgrade to their latest OS, which I'm guessing they'll stop supporting within a year or two.)

THANKS, APPLE, YOU ASSHOLES.

Now I'm wondering if I'll be making the same mistake buying an Amazon Kindle for books. Lately, I've been reading mostly fiction, mostly in paperback form. This has been fine, but I'm in the process of moving, and after packing 39+ boxes with books I wonder now if there might be a better way. I'm considering a Kindle because:

• Like I said, I've got too many real live books to keep hauling around the country
• A paperback-sized skinny Kindle might be a better option for reading at night with a cat sitting on my chest
• It's relatively cheap now, and many books are either free or cheaper than their paper counterparts
• Seems like the Kindle will hold thousands of books, plenty for me, and that the books you've purchased will be available for re-download if you break/lose your kindle or get a new one

I've considered waiting for E-Ink Triton (color) to get incorporated into Kindle, but lately I think that I don't care about that (because it'll be much more expensive for a few years yet), nor about being able to surf the net on the same device. If I wanted to do either thing I'd probably get a Motorola Xoom tablet instead.

However, I am a bit worried that I might be making the same mistake with the Kindle as I did with the Apple iPod. That is, if I commit to Kindle format then at some point I lose or break my Kindle or something happens that pisses me off as much as Apple has and I can't or won't get a Kindle replacement, that I might then be the proud owner of hundreds or maybe thousands of dollars worth of Kindle-formatted software (books) that are totally useless to me.

Plus, I'm a bit concerned that lately I've been seeing Kindle-download-format paperback books selling for the same full retail price as a real paperback. The same price is fine, except that I can get paperbacks for 30% cheaper buying the actual paperback at Walmart or Sam's Club. Given that it is SO SO SO much cheaper to sell an electronic copy of a paperback book, why is it that authors like Lee Child are insisting that years-old electronic format have to sell for the same full retail price?

If anyone has advice opinions or answers to my questions, I'd appreciate comments. Thanks.

--SDP