Electronic Books

Over the weekend Timber and I found ourselves inside a book store talking to a representative from Sony about Sony's electronic book device.  It is basically a device that allows you to download electronic books to it and then read them on the device.  We got to spend some time playing around with it, and I have to say that I was mildly impressed.  The main benefit of it is that you don't need a huge bookshelf at home to house your books, and you can take way more books with you when you travel if you have an electronic book device.  The part that impressed me the most was how close to a real paperback black and white book the screen was.  It was almost like reading text off of paper, which is what people seem to want from an electronic reading device.  Also the device seemed to have pretty good battery life and felt good and comfortable in my hand.  I think electronic book devices have been around for 10 years or so, but it seems like they are making great strides.  I also looked into the Amazon Kindle, and I would not be surprised if these devices start to get a real foothold in people's homes in the next 10 years or so.  I'm not sure if paper books will ever really go away, but the better these electronic book devices get, the more likely they are to become really useful.  For myself I think I'll revisit them again in 5 years or so to see where they stand.  Until then I'll stick with my good old paperback.