The entire front page of the Personal Journal section of the WSJ this morning was dominated by this article (here) that discussed the evolution and adaption of the e-reader. There's even a handy-dandy interactive that lets prospective e-reader buyers compare the three most popular e-readers (here).
Despite its length, there was very little in the article that I haven't discussed in this blog. In fact, if you move your eyes a bit to the right you'll see in the panel a list of all my links to articles and posts on e-books and e-readers all neatly compiled and imminently readable.
The portion of the article about libraries was interesting. One particularly weak aspect of e-readers is the fact that books will be harder to loan out. I read years ago that one should never loan money or books with the expectation of getting either back. Following that mantra I have not loaned out money. I have loaned out books. I've gotten a few back. I enjoy saying to a friend, "Here, read this, you'll love it." (My friend Bill is an even bigger advocate of this type of interaction. He'll loan me stuff he hates. Never really understood that. It's like saying to someone over dinner, "Man oh man this potato pancake is bad, here try it.")
Nevertheless, the quote that I liked from the article is: "Libraries are expanding services that let patrons virtually "check out" an e-book through the Internet, with e-book files that automatically lock down after the end of the loan period. According to the American Library Association, 66% of libraries offered e-book loans, up from just 38% in 2005. The most checked-out adult fiction e-book at libraries is Stieg Larsson's bestseller, "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo," according to Overdrive, a company that provides e-book loans for more than 11,000 libraries. The same is true at Amazon, the largest e-bookstore online, where Mr. Larsson also tops e-book bestseller lists."
Avid readers of this blog will note that one aspect of the e-reader I thoroughly enjoy is how inexpensive the e-books are. I find the same enjoyment out of shopping on Amazon's Kindle page as I do shopping at Half Price Books. Cost-conscious readers should love it. When is my library going to support e-loaning.
Finally, to continue the above line of thought, about shopping for e-books, some statistics from the article:
51% of e-reader owners increased their purchases of e-books in the past year.
9% of consumers increased their purchases of hardcover books in the past year.
176% Increase in U.S. electronic-book sales in 2009.
1.8% Decrease in U.S. book sales in 2009 from a year earlier.
Apparently I'm not the only cheap....I mean frugal e-reader out there.
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