eBooks - All you need to know

eReaders are compact, thin screened devices that many believe could be the end of the printed book. The technology that drives these devices - eInk allows for a high resolution screen that doesn't require any backlighting and on the better models completely mimics paper. In fact eReaders are capable of displaying print with a contrast ratio equal to most newspapers. The readers have grown in popularity over recent years but have yet to crack the mass marker, though industry experts predict that 2010 could be the year this happens.

Using an eReader, after the initial few hours, is a breeze - because very little power is being used to display the eInk display long battery lives are the norm.I read maybe a dozen books, virtual cover to virtual cover, on my Elonex after the initial charge before having to charge the device again. And now colour models are hitting the marker with faster Wi-Fi for the downloading of books on the move.

The facts:

Waterstones sells an e-Book every 90 seconds and its fastest selling title is Dan Brown's The Lost Symbol.

The Sony Reader is able to cope with 6,800 pages turns on every battery charge. That's War and Peace twice. The device weighs just 220g and will hold around 350 books in its memory.

One effect of eReaders has been the rise in erotic fiction. Probably because it gives anonymity by doing away with the lewd dust jackets.

One of the best places for free eBooks is project Gutenberg - started in 1971 to make out of copyrighted texts available to all, the first document it ever digitised was The American
Declaration of Independence. It now holds thousands upon thousands of book which can be downloaded and read on an eReader or your PC if you prefer. A great way to build up a digital library of the classics.


"eBooks and eReaders mark the biggest change in the way we read since Penguin Paperbacks in the 1930's" David Kohn,Waterstones.

The Telegraph newspaper recently claimed that the biggest issues facing eReaders going mainstream is not the lack of an, as yet, universal format, but book publishers themselves. They are worried about pricing, piracy and the lack of common standard. But they could be biting their nose off to spite their face - enterprise in the market is what's needed now and no doubt it's just around the corner, as more and more publishers look towards the digital medium a big part of their future.