’’Technology sure can revolutionize our way of living...’’

And now ’’Ebook v/s paper book’’ has to be a topic of debate, which is probably as old as the topic ’’Technology - boon or bane’’.

One for paper books
Nothing like it - is it?
There are some reviews here that highlight the advantages of paper books such as
* carry them anywhere - ideal as bed and bathroom partner (I am talking of books here!!)
* feel of paper
* smell of paper books
* good to abuse like throw it, toss it, drop it.

Oh! Come-on, while the sentiments are welcome, I do not think that the arguments have any special credence. To highlight the above merits, some de-merits of ebooks are quoted such as
* cannot carry desktop/laptop to bed or bathroom
* staring at a computer screen can be quite an eye-sore
* one cannot make any marks/notes, underline/highlight text with pdf files.

Very true! In this perspective, paper books are very meritorious - indeed!
But aren’t these arguments antiquated?
The one argument that is swaying is that there aren’t as many ebooks, and authors/publishers are wary about e-publishing.

Changing with times - warranted
One aspect that disturbs me about paper books is that much of the smell, feel of paper and other such emotions, exhilaration attached with paper books is but evanescent. What is the status of the book after it has been read?
* Maintained proudly as ’’collection’’
* Lies somewhere in attic and collects dust
* Provides a home for ’’silverfish’’
* Circulated amongst friends, relatives (important aspect)
* Sold to ’’raddiwala’’ (paper mart)

And the most common argument that is valid is of course - cutting of wood, deforestation. So isn’t a change warranted?

Ebook readers
E-books cant give the feel of paper nor its smell, but wouldn’t most of you be happy if it can be carried to bed or anywhere for that matter and is not cumbersome as carrying a laptop. Of course, it can be! How? - Ebook readers.
E-book readers are just the size of a novel - like Pocket PC. The cheapest one it seems is Franklin Ebookman at $129 (~ Rs. 6500) and the most expensive one is Pocket PC Pro with ebook combined with PDA/palmtop at $2000 (~ Rs. 1 lac?.argggg!!!). The most popular is a dedicated ebook reader only from Gemstar at $300 (~ Rs. 15,000). Steep! Possibly the only major hurdle.

With advancement in technologies and acceptance of these products, the prices may drop down. But some amazing advantages are: lightweight, one can make notes, have bookmarks, highlight text, ’’flip’’ pages, amazing clarity, storage (10 books and more), backlit displays, customizable font sizes. The new ones like Palm Reader Pro, Gemstar REB1100 also has incorporated dictionary. Besides technologies like CoolType in Adobe and ClearType in Microsoft Reader ensures better readability.

Ebooks
Ebooks have a true representation of the text, graphs, pictures as any book would have. The advantages associated with it are:
* they can be downloaded from the net.
* they can be uploaded from reader to your PC (if you want to keep the book for posterity)
* if a book is read and not required, simply delete it.
* cheaper than paper versions (since printing and distribution costs are absent)

There are plenty of e-books in various categories such as science, political, religious, bible, children books, even ’’Harry Potter’’ and ’’Lord of the rings’’ available from websites like www.planetebook.com, www.bn.com/ebook, www.mightywords.com and from Microsoft and Adobe sites too. These can be read through softwares like Microsoft Reader, Adobe e-book, Adobe Acrobat Reader etc., which can be downloaded for free.

Also e-books are best bet for self-published authors i.e. those who want to publish their own work. Any publisher asks for large volumes, which can mean hefty costs. So for research work, papers, and small write-ups especially that with pages around 100, going electronic is several times more economical.

Issues
If only life was simpler! Everything is not as sweet! E-books are also plagued with issues. As a reader the issue we face is lack of uniformity or standards about e-books. One format can be read in say Gemstar rocketebook. The same cannot be read in Mobipocket which cannot be read in Palm reader. However, these issues are being sorted through an organization that is trying to formulate certain ’’Openbook’’ standards (see openebook.org).
Other issue is the price of reader -- Rs. 6000 to Rs 25,000 (even a lac as mentioned) is discouraging.
Many other issues are associated with myths about e-books - one that is for free (some w/o copyrights such as classics are available for free due to ’’Project Gutenberg’’ (http://www.gutenberg.net) and (http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/ebooks/), while all others are charged). Also note that Reader softwares does not allow copying of the content material onto more than two physical devices through some limits imposed and hence unlike printed books cannot be lend.
Copyright and piracy issues. Most software take care through encryption or some such techniques. ’’Riding the bullet’’ by Stephan King boosted the ebook market and raised hackles in publishing world. A free pirated copy could be downloaded using peer-to-peer softwares like Morpheus, Kazaa etc after 2 days of its release. Adobe is having battle with Elcomsoft for officially releasing software that converts copy-protected ebooks into plain pdf files that can be later freely distributed. This dissuades major publishers from going electronic. So as readers we can complain of lesser titles.

Some interesting places to visit are
( http://library.books24x7.com/home.asp) for computer related books
(http://www.lib.uiowa.edu/eng/hdbk.htm) for engineering books

So while its quite agreeable that paper books are here to stay, one should look forward for going the e-way. I would definitely like to have views of the readers on MS on the topic and this review.