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In Your Face!
In each edition of The BookSense.com Newsletter (sign up here!), Len Vlahos, director of BookSense.com, holds forth about various topics...

E-Books: Hype? Or Hot Stuff?
May 16, 2001

Those of us who work in the book industry have been hearing for some time now that e-books are the second coming . . . that they will revolutionize the way we read, will change the distribution model in the book industry, will cure male-pattern baldness, etc. You get the idea.

Early on, I got very caught up in the hype. I had the pleasure of test-driving an early version of the Rocket eBook reader, a hand-held device with a screen that's almost the size of a mass-market paperback page. Its memory can hold dozens of books at one time, and you read by scrolling or paging through screens. Some nice features include the ability to change the font size, look words up in an e-dictionary, and search for words found in the text.

I lived with the unit for a few weeks, and while it had its problems -- it was a bit heavy, and the screen did make my eyes tired after a while -- it was clear to me that the potential was enormous for e-books to change the way we think about the written word. But that was more than two years ago. Since that time, the hype has far outpaced reality.

In the interest of full disclosure, let me say up front that this column might seem a bit self-serving. However, BookSense.com does not sell e-books. We considered the e-book phenomenon, and decided our stores and our customers would be best served if we took a more cautious approach -- we're waiting for reality to catch up with the hype.

I see two major problems with e-books as they exist today:

1. There are too many formats. There are at least four distinct e-book formats available, and it's hard to know which one to pick, or which one will still be around in 12, 18, or 24 months. Those of you who are old enough might remember that the consumer video-recorder market eventually whittled itself down to just VHS (this, despite the fact Beta was better). It's reasonable to expect the e-book market to undergo a similar evolution.
2. There aren't enough titles. Every year we hear there will be tens of thousands of titles available in e-book format in "the next few months." I'm still waiting. Powells.com (one of the first to sell e-books, and my personal favorite of the sites that do sell them), states on its main e-book page that about 4,000 titles are available. With nearly two million in print, there is clearly a long, long way to go.

Does this mean I think e-books will never, or should never, catch on? Hardly. Once the lawyers sort through copyright issues, and once the early adopters decide which format works best, e-books will have their day. When that time comes, we'll even sell them here at BookSense.com.

But while the e-book may complement the printed book (p-book), it will never replace it. There is a certain tactile experience one has when reading a p-book. There's even a certain smell. I believe we're drawn to this sensory experience. Of course, 12-inch, long-playing vinyl record albums, or LPs, had similar qualities, and they're all but gone now. But p-books are, I think, different.

Unlike LPs, p-books are still the most sophisticated technology through which to deliver most of what we read. P-books are durable, completely portable, require no outside power source, are platform-agnostic, can be easily shared and easily replaced, and will dry off and still work if you drop them in the tub. P-books are, without a doubt, still the best entertainment/education value for the dollar.

If you're an early adopter and you'd like to send me your e-opinion, go ahead, make my day. Send email to inyourface@booksense.com.

Further Reading:

P-Books: The Book Sense 76! Len's -- and the rest of us' -- Staff picks

M-Books: The movies! Or, the Books on Film section.

Disclaimer: In Your Face does not necessarily represent the views of BookSense.com's staff, management, ownership, or its affiliated booksellers. [Does it even represent Len's views? Hmmm.]

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