[Age of Reason]

I love the smell of real books--new or used.

And I avoid buying softcovers.

The best thing about e-text, however, is the ability to search-out phrases and words.

I would love to see every hardcover book with a pocket on inside the cover, containing a CD of the entire text of the book.

Better would be to have the entire text of the book on some kind of plastic card instead of a bulky CD--one would then swipe the plastic card through a reader connected to your PC to upload the contents to you hard disc for future reference.

(Or perhaps the cover itself could have the e-text embedded in a magnetic layer of some sort: One would then move a wand over the book to upload the text. Simpler than a card or CD, which likely would be lost or separated from the book should it ever appear in a used bookshop)

I have never been able to find in which book it was that I read the quote that runs something like this: "Have we now sunk to such a level that it has become the first duty of an intelligent man to restate the obvious?"

Was it H.G. Wells who said that?

(Come to think of it, time to search the web again for that quote--maybe I can find it there; last time I tried was a few years back, and it didn't turn up.)

Anyway, the best use of technology would be to BRING DOWN THE COST OF HARDCOVER BOOKS!

It's insane what new ones cost--and a real indication of the loss of prosperity that one of the best things in life is costs so much.

One would think they were still written by hand.

[BlazingArizona]

The best thing about e-text, however, is the ability to search-out phrases and words.

Textbooks are an ideal first market for e-books. They're heavy, they're expensive, and you only need them for a short time, after which they have to be replaced with other textbooks. AND - e-text is searchable. Since students already carry laptops, there's no need to wait while customers buy another new gadget to read the format.

I'm sure I'm not the first to think of this application. I bet publishers are knowingly shunning this obvious market because they fear copying.