[SamIAm]

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No. This will flop horribly in the consumer market, and may be good for academics. People don't consume music like they do books.

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Ron Burgundy: I don't know how to put this but I'm kind of a big deal.
Veronica Corningstone: Really.
Ron Burgundy: People know me.
Veronica Corningstone: Well, I'm very happy for you.
Ron Burgundy: I'm very important. I have many leather-bound books and my apartment smells of rich mahogany.


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That example demonstrates a little of the difference between listening to music from any device and the reason and way we read books.

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One thing I can attest to is that people who love books love books - meaning they actually love the physical book, not just the text.

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I have a fondness for mushed-up trees, too, but my kids won't. Certainly not my grandkids. There are just WAY too many advantages to treating books like 1s & 0s, instead of a physical commodity.

At one point, books were ALL HAND-WRITTEN. Each one required loving attention from a real human being, so I'm sure that new-fangled "printing press" felt cold and gimmicky. It seems to have done ok, though.

I don't think the Amazon Kindle v1.0 is going to revolutionize much. But there's pretty little question in my mind about whether ebooks will take-off eventually.