Anusha said:
i don't use irc. i don't even know how it works. never had the need...
until trillian astra is released (it's awesome looking, but not sure what will the final user experience be like), i will be sticking with pidgin.
I checked out the Trillian page on wikipedia, seems to be fantastic, it even supports skype! I will really like that it includes wikipedia instant lookup.
I don't use irc to chat but to download!

You will like irc if you read ebooks (not subject books, but books like novels). For searching and downloading ebooks irc is better than any p2p network, and bittorrent is useless about novels.
Since you've said, you don't like books

It's no use of me trying to get you on irc, but if are curious to try out a new protocol check this irc channel with opera or another irc client
server: irc.undernet.org
channel: #bookz