This morning I went to Amazon Web site to order the book “The good man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ rdquo;. The book is available in paperback ($10.17), in hardcover ($16.32) and in Kindle edition ($8.74). Recently I got the Kindle as a gift so started thinking if I should get the electronic version of the book.

Kindle is nice but what if want to give this book to read to a couple of other people? With the paper version I can do it, but with the electronic version I can “t. The setup is still more complicated that with a regular book. Using the software engineering terms, the e-book needs a runtime environment. The printed book can be compared to a .exe file that you can run on any Windows computer, while the e-book is like a server-side program deployed in some container, which has to be up an running.

A printed book is self-sufficient ndash; start reading anywhere in a second. You can spill beer on it and continue reading. You can drop it in the sand while laying on a beach. You can sit on it. You can tear a page or two out in case of emergency.

On the other hand, with Kindle you can magnify the text eliminating the need to use reading glasses . Kindle is compact and you can have lots of books in one slim device. But to me Kindle is not an exiting device. It does the job well, but it “s not a fetish device. None of the existing e-readers makes my heart beat faster.

I took this photo in suburban bus driving to Manhattan. This girl is clearly a reader. She even bought a portable flashlight eliminating the dependency on these ceiling-mounted dull little bulbs that may or may not work. She has to be able to read no matter what! But there are not many people who are willing to carry and operate expensive (more or less) electronic devices.

To be widely adopted by masses, E-readers must be comparable in price with the paperbacks. There should be disposable E-readers. I should be able to give an e-book with a device to anyone without worrying that she may forget to return it to me. Like disposable cigarette lighter. In the past, people would recharge these lighters with liquid gas. Who does it these days? They are so cheap hellip; These ebooks must become dramatically cheaper.

The E-readers have to agree on some interchangeable data format to enable a Kindle owner to exchange files with Nook, eReader et al. And this should be easy enough so even computer illiterate people could do it. The intellectual property laws should allow and promote e-book exchange between e-readers. I “m not breaking any laws by borrowing a book from someone. The same practice has to be established in the e-Book world.

The latest Barnes and Noble “s Nook supports colors for $250. Thank you very much, but I “d rather get a tablet PC for this much. I believe I still have the Sony e-Book reader laying in some drawer for a couple of years. Should I go and try to find it? Nay hellip;