The eBook Evolution: Be Here Now

With the launch of Apple’s IPad (could they have picked a worse name? Survey says: no) the chitter chatter about ebooks has picked up like the last three episodes of a season of Lost. There are those who have embraced the ebook trend (The convenience! The portability! The privacy!*) and those who have declared themselves anti-ebook (my books! My lovely books! How dare you fiddle with perfection!). The truth is, you should embrace the ebook, and here’s why:

It’s evolution, baby.

When I was a kid the only thing I wanted was a Walkman. One like the the girl has here, only red:

Now that is the epitome of cool.

Not convinced?  Check out the tape player I actually got once I was "responsible" enough for such things.

BORING!!!!

By the time I was in high school, tapes had given way to CDs (okay, they did that in junior high, I was just a late adopter) and this was the bad boy to have:

Notice the anti-skip assurance? Those portable CD players skipped like you were creating your own remix.

Now we have the IPod, which is probably the best invention EVER (Yes, even better than penicillin). Why is it so great? Because it’s convenient. The IPod allows you to carry around your entire CD collection in a tiny little package. Don’t travel a lot? It gives you the ease of switching between CDs, and you never have to worry about scratching it and ruining your music.

Plus, look at all the pretty colors:

Ooooooooooo, rainbow-y.

ITunes also streamlined the music buying ability of millions, letting you buy just the song you like instead of that song-from-the-radio-you-love-and-eleven-other-tracks-that-suck. The IPod was faster, skinnier, and just plain sexier than its predecessors.

The ebook is the same way. An ereader (or ereader software downloaded to your computer or, yes, IPod) gives you the book buying power of anywhere, anywhen, anything. You don’t have to buy; download the first thirty pages to see if the story holds up to the cover. Better yet, you don’t have to go to the bookstore if you don’t want to. You can sit at home in your sweatpants and peruse the new releases before you buy them.  Better yet you have them to read a few seconds later.

As you can see, I'm a big proponent of ebooks.  But what do I know?  I'm still rocking out to my Discman like it's 1999 (kidding...sort of).

How do you feel about ebooks?  For?  Against?  Don't care as long as you can get the Dead Tossed Waves NOW?!?!   Leave your thoughts below.


*Privacy is up for discussion after Amazon's 1984 faux pas earlier this year.  Still, when using an ereader you never have to worry about that annoying "Oh hey, whay are you reading?" convo.