The End Of Paper Books?

Amazon have just launched their Amazon Kindle, a revolutionary electronic-paper display provides a sharp, high-resolution screen that looks and reads like real paper. Whilst not the first on the market (the Sony Reader being the first that comes to mind), it certainly almost brings electronic book readers into the mainstream.

The Amazon page does a good job of promoting it’s benefits, on the Amazon page are many more videos and you can hear what Neil Gaiman (very interesting) & James Patterson have to say about it. The user reviews are interesting too.

Professional reviews have been mixed, with some thinking it is good or great, and some not so positive.

Pros:
- All your books in one place (well, around 200 books, newspapers or blogs).
- No use of virgin paper and printing inks.
- Little distribution cost.

Cons:
- Initial cost is high, needing a lot of second hand books to cover it.
- You can’t pass a book on.
- Proprietary format books are stored in (you can’t read them on your PC).
- It’s made out of plastic.

Overall my personal opinion is that buying or borrowing used books is better, however it seems that in the future this sort of technology will only become cheaper, easier to use, and more widespread.