I love books. I am getting that out of the way just so nobody misunderstands this post. I like to read. I read fiction, non-fiction, textbooks, newspapers, blogs, magazines, the back and sides of cereal boxes (lots of good reading on cardboard these days). What I don't like, is carrying three textbooks, a notebook, and a laptop around on my back. My back wants relief! And wouldn't you know it, but technology has provided a solution to a problem that apparently nobody besides myself wants solved. I am talking about ebooks and ebook readers.
Take, for example, the two most visible ebook readers, the Sony Reader and the Amazon Kindle. Both are amazing devices that simulate the real thing, reading on paper. The displays are designed to look exactly like paper and it really is amazing how good these devices are at doing so. I played with the Sony Reader (Never seen the Kindle in person, but it uses exactly the same display technology, e-ink) and I was blown away by how easy it is to read text on the e-ink display. It is not like reading on a computer screen, which can be difficult on the eyes, but more or less like reading text on paper. One has to see this technology in action to properly understand what I am talking about.
The promise of digital books and readers make me very excited. One device, the size of a book that can hold thousands of pages of reading. The Kindle is very neat, as it has a built in keyboard for taking notes, and an integrated wireless modem to get books, rss feeds, websites, magazines and newspapers without using a computer. Very nice!
But most important to my back is only carrying around one device that takes the place of all the books that I carry.
However, there are a number of drawbacks that keep me from taking the plunge into ebooks.
1. Price. The Sony and Amazon devices are expensive ($300 and $400) for what they are. a device to read books that you could individually own for $10 each. And since you have to buy all the books on top of buying the device, this suddenly becomes a very expensive proposition.
2. DRM. Right now, if you buy a reader from Sony or Amazon, you are stuck with them. Much like the iPod, and you want to get legal music, you are forced to use iTunes, Amazon forces you to buy books from them, and the same goes for Sony. This means that I cannot go to Borders and get the latest books and put them on my Kindle. And if I decide I don't like the Kindle and want the Sony Reader, I can't take my books with me. I like choice. Nice things about books is that it doesn't really matter where you get the book (Barnes & Nobles, Borders, the local bookstore), it is the same book everywhere. Not so with digital books. A kindle book is not the same as a Sony book. The text may be the same, but if I can't take the book with me when I buy a different reader, then it defeats the purpose in my mind.
3. While I don't like to mark up my books with notes, I'd like to and I know plenty of people who do. You can take notes on the iRex iLiad e-book reader, but you can't buy any books from Amazon or Sony which are the main places to get most books or periodicals. The Kindle has a keyboard to take notes with, but it's just not the same as handwriting notes in the margins. This is a necessity to some people, and something I would love to take advantage of (I just don't like to mark up paper)
4. There is a lack of a real selection. The killer application for this device would be to have textbooks for these devices. If I don't have to lug around three 1000 page boos on Constitutional Law or Torts, I'd be a very happy man. But right now, you will mostly find fiction and non-fiction for these devices.
5. I like my library. I like the look a bookcase full of books and I know I am not alone. A digital book negates this. But it doesn't have to. I think a great idea for Amazon or Sony would be to bundle books. I don't mind having a book at home that I can pick up and read, and then taking the digital copy with me when I leave the house. If I could go to a bookstore, pick up a book and bundled with it is a code for me to download the digital version, that would, in my opinion, take digital books into the mainstream and really make this a killer application.
Hopefully someone will make the perfect ebook reader and the infrastructure to make that happen. A man can dream
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