A reader of this blog opined that e-books “will not become vital in the near future” because they are “simply no fun to read”.

I agree that book industry’s effort to push e-books has yet to produce the kind of result they had hoped for when they started out. I will point out, however, that our habits of reading written words are changing in the age of Internet.

If you’re reading this, you’re reading written words on a computer screen. Yahoo and Google are basically two giant electronic encyclopedias. Many of us read reviews of music, movies, and games online. I cannot remember the last time I got news from newspapers.

There are people who prefer the intimate smell of paper and the sentimental feel of a book in their hands, not to mention the portability. Although I pity the trees that have to be cut in order to print books that have questionable literary value (and let’s face it, there are tons of those around—just check out the so-called “Best-Seller Lists”).

In 1975, Bill Gates predicted that one day there would be a computer in every home; people laughed at him. In early 90s, Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon.com, was certain that people would buy books online; many thought he was a nutcase. To improve on the current technology of e-books and make them “fun to read” takes that kind of vision and chutzpah.

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