More Words, Deeper Hole

I'll admit to being intrigued by the new Kindle.

I do keep a small slew of books on my phone, but while the phone is workable as a reading device, the screen just isn't big enough to make it really comfortable for me. It's not a matter of resolution or contrast, you just can't fit enough text on a screen that small for it to be a comfortable "page" size for me. I use the e-books as backup reading material when I happen to not have a physical book with me.

But my biggest problem with e-books is that I have trouble paying significant money for a wodge of data that I download over the net. This isn't an entirely rational dislike, I know; but on the other hand electronic data is rather transitory by nature -- hard drives fail, etc. -- and while I do do backups (not as religiously as I ought to), without some kind of "original media" it doesn't quite feel like I actually own the data. Whereas I have physical books I've owned for decades and comfortably expect to still own decades from now.

Also, as the article notes, the DRM is a big turn-off.

The result is that I'm reluctant to pay physical-book prices, or even most-of-a-physical-book prices, for e-books. Project Gutenberg and Baen provide me with a smallish library of free books, but beyond that I'm disinclined to go at present.