Google are reported to be considering creating an online ebook store, subject to copyright permissions being granted, according to Google CEO Eric Schmidt who told reporters at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas (see article from BBC). The renewed interest in selling ebooks seems to be occurring at the same time as Sony trying to push ebooks and their new ebook reader device - the Sony Reader - as being the new ipod of text. I will be very interested to see how this takes off, will people eventually turn to reading books electronically? Evidence has shown that people generally do not like to read longer texts such as novels onscreen, as it is uncomfortable on the eyes, and generally less comfortable than reading a printed version. Indeed, evidence from some medical libraries has shown that access to ebooks is generally short - reinforcing the view that people do not like to spend long amounts of time reading electronic texts. (IWR, 219, pg.11) Will the new e-ink technology be good enough to counter this?

Can you imagine taking your entire bookshelf with you on the train, or on holiday?? There are clearly advantages to this technology. Some publishers of ebooks are now trying to provide more than just electronic versions of the printed book, e.g. by including extra content. But drawing once again from my own experience, readings and research, although many people love accessing things such as electronic journals online, even the most enthusiastic of users still tend to print out electronic copies of documents for reading. I tend to spend longer looking over a printed document than I do an electronic one, where the tendency is to just skim over it. The electronic medium is perfect for shorter, to-the-point pieces of information such as blogs, news pieces, abstracts etc. or even academic journals (although my preference would be to print these too - but saving paper is always an issue!!). However, I could not imagine myself settling down at my desk to read Wuthering Heights, for example.

The book reader is portable enough to counter this argument to some extent, and perhaps advances in screen technology such as e-ink will make it just as comfortable to read books electronically, but as I have mentioned before, there is still something that seems to be missing from the ebook equation - the aesthetics of the book!! And although there would be much less space, my house would be far less interesting without my wonderfully diverse bookcase…