Introduction

Technological enhancements have revolutionized how society acquires the majority of its media content. In this digital age, it is the desire of the masses to have access to large amounts of digital information. Electronic book (e-book) technology offers another platform for readers. Is digital literacy universally high enough to warrant an upcoming trend towards readers and do they, in the end, offer what the bound book cannot? 

Best-selling authors talk about the new platform (“storefront”) to sell their titles:

Kindle love

My husband has had the Kindle since they first shipped. With our huge  built-in bookcase at its full capacity, he enjoys the ease of these virtual books. I’ve played around with it and definitely can see reading an entire book, although I wouldn’t necessarily read every kind of book on it. He likes the fact that many of his core text for his PhD program are available in Kindle format.

Joe Wikert and Evan Schnittman have great blogs listing implications digital readers will have on the market. And Josh Topolsky awaits the transformation of the reader into Web 2.0 compliance.

With a variety of uses, I think its fun that editors are using the ease of the Kindle and Sony Readers to save their backs in carrying once heavy handed manuscripts. This NY Mag article even equates the practice with going green.

And Kindle will definitely have competition. TeleRead blogger David Rothman introduces the latest technologies out of Taiwan.