In the immortal words of Al Pacino "Say hello to my little friend"

I bought a Kindle a few weeks ago and I'm loving it. It's very light and really does read like a book.
I opted out of all the accessories and found my own case ( I use a Swiss Army brand passport holder).
 Being the big pulp geek that I am I have mine filled with Burroughs, Howard, Lovecraft, Mundy, Lamb, and Doyle. I found most of the titles I have loaded for either under $2.00 or free. 
If your Google Fu is strong and your ethics weak you can also find all kinds of goodies on the Internets (all praise to Al Gore) and format them very nicely with Calibre E-book management software. So far I've found everything from the complete collection of Doc Savage paperbacks

to those books your uncle kept in his old Army footlocker in the closet.

Kindle can "kind of" surf the web and it can "sort of" read PDF's, but it really wasn't made for that. You could shoehorn it to do both, but it doesn't do either real well. If that what you really want then get an iPad and be done with it. 
My buddy Karl has an iPad and he loves it. iPads can do everything a Kindle can do, plus play movies, surf the web in color, write emails, and read PDF games and comic books. 
But thats the thing - When I get my iPad (and I will) I'll be using it for all that other stuff and I'll never just sit and read a book. The Kindle does one thing and does it real well- it stores a ton of books in a light, slim, easy to read format that you can take anywhere. I'm sure that even when I do get my i Pad I'll still be bringing my Kindle along for serious reading.