eBooks – The future of reading

Just a day or two ago I was in my soda cellar, going through my old stock of books trying to pick out which ones I had the deepest attachment to as well. I was moving across the states with the help of a friend and his truck, so I had to tame my inner rat and only take what I felt was important, things I would really remember not taking and regret. Over my 20+ years I have collected a large number of books, there was a point in my teens where I could easily devour 2 or 3 a week. Such was the life of a abandoned loser.

After filling 2 boxes of cards with my favorite novels, I couldn’t help but think of my classmates’ new ‘toy’: an Amazon ‘Kindle’. An e-book gaining popularity downloading books directly from Amazon’s Whispernet.

The latest Kindle model, the Kindle DX, costs almost $500, I couldn’t believe that I was willing to give up those kinds of scratches to read the same books that I could buy for less than 1/4 of that cost. How could you imitate the intimate connection you can get from a good novel on paper? Especially the older ones, with yellowed pages and a thick, musty smell.

E-books had a small rise in popularity in the early 2000s, but many were only programmed in one format. So if you were the owner of an eBook and his favorite novel had just been published on a rival’s eBook, you would have to deal with it.

Due to the popularity of the Kindle, many large companies decided to give it a try and join the competition. Barnes & Noble introduced its “Nook”, which is the first to be primarily based on the ‘Android’ platform and has a MicroSD expansion slot for additional storage. Except for being a much less expensive Kindle alternative, it can be hacked to add apps like Pandora, a Twitter client, Google Reader, Facebook, and a web browser.

In France, Bookeen launched the ultralight Cybook Opus, which features a high-contrast, paper-like appearance that is basically readable in daylight. When the Cybook Opus is connected to your PC, it registers as a common USB mass storage device, so you can easily copy books without special drivers.

With the release of Apple’s iPad came the release of the iBooks app. Except for having all the features of the Kindle, you can also embed video. However, it still lacks USB ports.

As my friend raved about his beloved little electronic library, I couldn’t help but think how foolish it was to suspect that a tiny, skinny contraption capable of downloading books could replace hundreds of years of paper history. It just took up less space, you could download any book you wanted whenever you wanted, future generations will surely be less expensive and better quality… I stopped my train of thought and took a good look at my stacks of physical books, all together they weighed a ton And they took up a lot of space. Will this generation see the disappearance of the printed word? I’m sure people in the 1960s couldn’t imagine life without their favorite 12-inch vinyl records, now those same people carry their favorite artist’s entire discography on a tiny iPod.

Ten years ago TVs were hulking monstrosities, now they’re paper-thin with quality so amazing you can count the pores in someone’s jaw. 10 years ago, Nintendo games were still pixelated and featured chubby characters with jerky movements, now it’s essentially interactive animation. In 10 years, will my ‘shelf’ just become ‘shelves’? Submitting a PDF and whatever knick-knack you throw in there to waste the empty space? What will happen to the libraries? My favorite used bookstore?

When I finally closed the card boxes and pressed the packing tape, I couldn’t help but think how convenient it would be to slip my favorite book ‘The Stand’ into my back pocket while having the rest of my library stored on my C: drive.