The Truth About eBooks

Hold on tight, because I’m going to cover all the sensational statements made about ebooks in the following sentence. Print is dead and there will be no more books in our libraries within five years, which is a real shame because our eyes will suffer from straining to make out the miniscule print of an ebook as we try to manage the unwieldy device while settling into bed for a good read. With that out of the way, let’s explore the reality of eBooks and why their fourth (or is it 47th?) attempt to go mainstream might just be the one that works.

There are a lot of misconceptions about ebooks; the print is too small, the devices are too heavy for comfortable reading, and the screen will strain your eyes. So first, get a ruler. If you don’t own a Sony Reader or an Amazon Kindle or know someone who does, take a trip to your nearest bookstore or other big-chain vendor, which will have a sample on display.

Measure a letter on a Sony PRS-505 ebook reader on the default font setting and you will find the size is identical when compared to the same letter as it appears in a typical paperback. But on the Sony device, you can easily adjust the font up to (or even beyond) the standard large-print size. I find the medium setting to be a nice compromise, reconciling a legible font size with the amount of text visible on the screen.

As for the device itself, I found it very handy to have such a small, thin device loaded with plenty of great books while traveling. No worries about pacing my reading so I’ll have something left for the return flight. And the lack of physical pages to turn really helps when you find yourself crammed into the middle seat on a jam-packed flight. With a battery lasting for about a week of sustained reading and enough storage for hundreds of free science fiction books from Baen and other sources, this device had me consuming more books in the past two months than I have over the past two years.

And just think of the possibilities. Print certainly isn’t dead, and our libraries are not going to stop buying books any time soon. But, it might just be time to make some room on our shelves for electronic texts. The future for ebooks and digital reading devices is tantalizingly bright right now. With the release of two new ereaders, including the oversized Kindle DX designed for newspaper and textbook reading, the Kindle line has grown to meet the needs of an increasing number of bibliophiles. While Amazon’s restrictive terms of service place the device out of reach for libraries, I can’t help but dream of someday teaching with a Kindle. Just imagine student book clubs sharing highlighted passages from a book. Or teachers and students exchanging notes for a reading assignment, complete with links to additional selections for further exploration. Imagine being able to download annotations from an author explaining the story behind the story for a uniquely immersive reading experience.

The text-to-speech feature of the new Kindle alone would make the device worth its weight in gold for students who need some added support or motivation for reading. And yet, the question remains, is the $359 price of a Kindle or even the $269 cost of a Sony Reader, justifiable in the age of the $300 netbook?

Though I’m all for the convergence of devices, I like the idea of a dedicated reader. As with a print book, it provides an opportunity to step away from my usual connections and enjoy quiet time alone with a great story. As someone who has grown accustomed to the distraction of hundreds of RSS feeds, it was liberating to sit back and soak in some great books, ones that just happened to be delivered electronically.