Echoing Jim's point (and the Average Joe) I find myself believing now in the promise of the eBook market, because I've entered it. I'm the new owner of a smart phone, and in anticipation of a trip I'm taking next week I downloaded three eBooks. I've already started reading one, and reading a book on a screen with high resolution isn't actually that bad.

Like Jim I'm a bibliophile, but three years ago I began a "simplicity" approach to life that meant getting rid of clutter. Unfortunately that included books, because they take up a lot of space. I kept my books on antique maps and my first editions on Richard Nixon but gave away most of the rest.

Owning a smart phone might not seem to fit a "simplicity" lifestyle, but I'm rationalizing it by saying that with my 1 Gb chip I can hold about 200 books, all taking up only virtual space. Now -- do I want to keep these books? Probably not. Two are fiction, and the nonfiction one -- a biography of Benjamin Franklin -- I'm unlikely to need later as a reference. I love my Napster to Go and am a true believer in the subscription model for music. With books I'd go for it as well, but I wonder if authors would be sufficiently compensated (of course, I wonder that about musical artists as well).

I would definitely go for some sort of digital Netflix-type service for eBooks, where I could keep up to five at a time on my phone, and when I finished one of them and deleted it, that action would let the provider know I could download the next one on my desired reading list. And unlike with Netflix, the next book I wanted would always be in stock.

Okay, publishing industry and techie entrepreneurs, let's see what you've got!

posted by Patrick Ross @ 9:40 AM | Books

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