Electronic Books - Ready For Prime Time

I sent my friend Eric a recent ad from Amazon about the Kindle electronic book.

His reply was “Solution for a problem that didn’t exist?”

I totally understand his reaction and have been on the same page for many years (sorry, couldn't resist the pun). But I suspect this is probably like the DVR, something you didn't think you needed until you tried it. I have a DVR that I got through Dish Network and I love it. I set it to record the shows that I happen to like, and it records all of them over the next week or so, or just the new ones, depending on how I set it. Then I watch them when I have time, without the commercials. I often wonder how I got along without it.

So, although I have resisted the urge to buy an electronic book due to the high price and the hard to read screens, I am seriously thinking about it now with the promise of electronic paper. After reading some of the user feedback, I'm expecting the next version of the Kindle to have more memory, better ergonomics and lower cost.

It's like digital encyclopedias versus paper ones. As e-books evolve, you will be able to search a document, highlight a paragraph, tag it, save it, and email it to friends just like you do on a PC, only in this case it will be in a form factor that is much more comfortable to read than sitting at a desk staring at a monitor, i.e. on a bus or on your balcony overlooking the Swiss alps. The Kindle is networked like a cellphone, not WiFi, so it should work almost anywhere.

Eventually, the DRM legal issues will get worked out so it is not so restrictive, and you can share passages with friends or resell your copy. Maybe they will even get to the point where the creative guy gets the bulk of the royalties, and the middle man just gets a small percentage.

I still prefer the character and feel of a real book and the fact that you don't need batteries, but at some point the two curves will cross and electronic books will become "better than cutting down trees" for many purposes. For example, my kids had to lug 30 lbs of textbooks back and forth between school and home every day. You could take your back out reaching across the car seat to grab one of those backpacks. That's at least one good argument right there.