All Hail The Kindle

E-book veteran John Siracusa has a long, smart article on the future of digital books. Why will they win out in the end?:

Take all of your arguments against the inevitability of e-books and substitute the word "horse" for "book" and the word "car" for "e-book." Here are a few examples to whet your appetite for the (really) inevitable debate in the discussion section at the end of this article.

"Books will never go away."  True!  Horses have not gone away either.

"Books have advantages over e-books that will never be overcome."  True!  Horses can travel over rough terrain that no car can navigate.  Paved roads don't go everywhere, nor should they.

"Books provide sensory/sentimental/sensual experiences that e-books can't match." True! Cars just can't match the experience of caring for and riding a horse: the smells, the textures, the sensations, the companionship with another living being.

Lather, rinse, repeat. Did you ride a horse to work today? I didn't. I'm sure plenty of people swore they would never ride in or operate a "horseless carriage"and they never did! And then they died.

The end of print is near: Google just put up mobile editions for 1.5 million books. Search through them here.