Good article. Yes the new Kindle technology is pretty mind-blowing. However I believe news of the book's demise is premature. (Reminds me a bit about talk of 'the paperless office' in the 1980s - how are we travelling to schedule on that now?) You've got to hand it to the ole book - for simplicity, utility and hardiness, it is a technology of genius which Kindle will have to go a long way to equal.

Good call, Peter Hume.

>>Reminds me a bit about talk of 'the paperless office' in the 1980s<<

In fact, when you think about it, there was - and is - far more incentive to organize businesses through increased automation, than to require book-readers of the future to buy an electronic device as a prerequisite to reading.

There simply isn't the same return on investment - for the normal reader, at least.

For anyone with an exceptional appetite for books, for example, in a professional capacity, an e-book will be an essential tool-of-trade. But for the rest of us, it will become an unnecessary hurdle.

It is also instructive to look at what has happened in the music industry. Recorded music went through a number of technology shifts over time. The cylinder, shellac, vinyl, reel-to-reel tape, eight-track tape, cassette tape, CD. MP3... each one requiring a new delivery mechanism.

And each one, to stay "legal", requiring a re-purchase of the original copyright material.

I can foresee this occurring all over again for books, as technology changes. A book will no longer be a once-off purchase that can sit on your shelf for fifty years, but be as readable after all that time, as on the day it was published.

You will have to buy it again.

And that poem, that will be able to "can dance across the screen to a background of moving images and seductive sound", will undoubtedly need more expensive hardware...

There could be no action less likely to encourage people to read, than the erection of this technological barrier to entry.

The article looks at the issue through the eyes of the producer, not the consumer. From that point of view, it all looks sensible and logical.

But the author's delight at the prospect of "the day when I can ditch that heavy book and download a dozen titles on to my lightweight e-reader before I fasten my seatbelt" should be tempered by its impact on the less avid consumer of "user-driven media".

Just because we can, doesn't mean we should.

I agree with the previous two posters.

I am one of those people who prints out documents to read rather than use the screen...I find the screen very tiring. Reading off paper is a far more pleasruable exercise (as is wirting on paper as opposed to typing into a computer). Are people really going to curl up in front the fire for an evening to stare at a screen rather than feel the pages of a book bwtween their fingers? Perhaps some would, but I can't see it. They may watch the TV, play computer games or surf the net, but read for a couple of hours off the screen? I can't look at a screen for more than half an hour at time...and there are plenty of others like me.

My opinion is that the book is far more aesthetically pleasing to use than a screen. It has a texture and character that is lost when digitised. Books don't need a battery or other power source to be able to read them. Also, I am not going to need endless software upgrades to download and read paper-based books. That has to be a good thing.

Long live the paper book...I can see it being around for a very long time indeed.

I can see a place for the Kindle, but as it will no doubt be superseded by a newer technology in a few years, traditional publishing will surely survive as a the only way to reliably provide access to books. Once the fossil fuel crisis hits, anything that unnecessarily uses energy will be avoided, and unless an alternative for aviation fuel is developed, few of us will be buckling our seatbelts to read anything, on a Kindle or on paper.

If the price of the book on Kindle, or similar, stays the same as the cost of a printed book - then something is very wrong and someone is making a lot of money.

If the price of book to "play" on a Kindle drops to the cost of converting a document electronically and the web hosting transaction tools, then it should be a couple of $ per copy, if that.

Much of a books price is the publishing and distribution, so we are told, and the authors cut is a percentage of that. Will the author's cut be propped up by the book publishing industry.

I can see the attraction for publishers, it will cost next to nothing to set up, you'll probably recover the entire "publishing costs" on the first 10 books then the rest is for swimming in.

Authors should be terrified of this, if their cut is a percentage of what their online books cost to deliver.(hint: read contract carefully)

I have around 5 books at any time I'm reading, different subject matter and genre depending on what I'm doing and time of day - do I now need 5 Kindles? I'll still buy paper books, so much more convenient if I want to look at several at once for reference, I'm not going to toggle between pages on a Kindle.

There's another angle that concerns me, having re-read the original piece.

Nothing in the "books out, Kindle in" scenario holds any incentive for the casual reader.

Who may only buy a couple of books a year.

The new Dan Brown, perhaps. Or a copy of Walter the Farting Dog for Grandad's birthday.

Will they rush out and buy a Kindle? Or whatever the next fashionable piece of hardware might be - I doubt it.

That gives the entire concept a subtle tinge of elitism.

Kids have their PS3 and PSP and their Wii. Buy a Kindle, just to read... books? Poetry? Even poetry in motion... Nah.

The more I think about it, the more concerned.

If it happens, it will be because the publishers want it to happen, not from consumer demand.

It will pander to the elite, who want to read three or four pieces of fine literature on their flight to Paris or Rome or wherever, at the expense of the chickies who just want the latest episode of Twilight.

We can only hope that it will go the way of all previous attempts by hardware manufacturers (you know who you are) to extract their profits by holding copyright over the people's heads.

"You want to read this book? Go buy a Kindle."

Also, what if you only have a Sony Reader? Or an iRex. or an iLiad. or the Jinke Hanlin e-Reader, or the CyBook by Bookeen. Or...

For a book, I just need...

A book.