Will e-books take over the world?

With the advance of the e-book, there is a real possibility the real-book will suffer the same fate as Little Nell

That blurb in the Times Online site caught my attention, as it was meant to. My first reaction to it was “Not with me, never, no way” – pretty much to be expected from any book lover, I guess, not just me.

E-books didn’t attract me in the least, not even when one of my favourite authors, Stephen King, offered a book written specifically for the Net. The book was not available nor would be in regular shops like other regular books. E-readers were meant to pay for and download the book, chapter by chapter. I’ve never been a fan of serialised novels, so that was a minus. But even if the entire novel had been offered at one go, I still didn’t like the idea of a book that I had to read on my computer. I couldn’t carry it around conveniently and printing the chapters off on regular paper didn’t appeal much. A book has to look and feel and smell like a book. Papers clipped together do not a book make. Not in MY book. Not even Stephen King’s books.

Then it dawned on me that e-books (the kind you have to download and read on your computer) have been around a while – so why an entire gloomy article on what sounded essentially like re-hashed news? That was when I decided to read the article and then re-consider my initial reaction on a slightly more informed basis.

I have to say that although in the back of my mind, I was still stubbornly thinking “Not with me, never, no way”, the front of my mind was actually considering the latest take on the e-book. Apparently it is “portable, lightweight, with unlimited operating time and no battery worries” plus, it is “wireless and cheap”. It certainly sounded perfect… lugging around books can get pretty heavy quite quickly (although it’s still more convenient than a computer!). For instance, struggling with a handbag, a piece of hand luggage, a bottle of water, sometimes a coat and a book or two (which rapidly gain weight quite out of proportion to their size) at airports should be an experience familiar to most people.

So on the face of it, one small, light, cheap e-book that could contain many books does seem like a good idea. I don’t know what these e-books look like, or how they might work, but I’m assuming that the font type, size, colour, background, etc can be changed according to individual tastes. That bit sounds like fun, sort of. I'm sure even I'll get an e-book, just to try out its novelty value. But I dont see it taking over my "real" books.

Sure, the iPod changed the way we listen to music (walkmans and personal CD players are on their way out, arent they?). I've got an iPod, but I still use CDs. Maybe e-books will come into force when we run out of trees... but can they (e-books, not trees) be prevented from crashing or getting corrupted by viruses? How many books in an e-book? How many e-books in a personal book collection? And how would an e-book ever, ever brighten a bookshelf or attract interest in its contents?