Well, I take it back. Now that I’ve tested two new devices, the idea of reading a book displayed on a screen makes sense. Millions of us are already comfortable reading text off a computer monitor, whether it’s from a Web page or an Excel document. Reading an electronic book is more or less the same experience, except that you can do it anywhere using one of these portable devices. I read my electronic books in a number of challenging situations: one-handed while standing in the subway; at a cafe table while subduing a messy croissant; in the dark, and even, gingerly, in the bathtub. The overall experience convinced me that electronic books are here to stay. The two machines I tested–the SoftBook and the Rocket eBook–both worked as promised and were fun to use. But I probably won’t buy either of them yet, because going to a regular bookstore is still a cheaper and more satisfying experience.
The SoftBook, from a Menlo Park, Calif., company called SoftBook Press ($599; www.softbook.com), is a tablet-shaped electronic book that can hold three to four medium-length novels at a time. The SoftBook has a large, book-size screen. This allows for lots of words per page and minimizes the amount of scrolling you have to do. I also liked the ease with which it downloads new books. All you do is connect the SoftBook to a working telephone line. Its modem senses that you want to go online and dials out automatically. In moments, the SoftBook online bookstore will appear on the screen. I purchased two books there–“Monica’s Story” by Andrew Morton and “Business @ the Speed of Thought” by Bill Gates, which were the least drab from a small selection of only 100 titles–and clocked the whole transaction at just three minutes. The drawbacks: at 2.9 pounds, the SoftBook is a bit on the heavy side; and the screen is hard to read in high-glare situations like bright daylight or whenever there’s a reflective window behind you.
The Rocket eBook, from another Silicon Valley company called NuvoMedia ($499; www.rocketebook.com), has a more readable, less glittery screen than the SoftBook and weighs much less, about 22 ounces, which is roughly the same weight as a Salman Rushdie-size hardcover. In fact, the Rocket eBook has pleasing ergonomics all round: it’s sturdy, curvy and rests comfortably in your palm whether you’re a righty or a lefty.
The thing I didn’t love was Rocket’s solution to downloading books, which is a tad complicated. First of all, you must own a PC and already have access to the Internet. Then you have to wrangle with a fairly involved hardware-and-software setup process. Once that’s over, it’s pretty easy. Rocket eBook users can shop for digital books at barnesandnoble.com. But instead of having to wait for their purchases to arrive in the mail, they download directly to their PC and then transfer to their Rocket eBooks.
Actually, what’s wrong with e-books isn’t the devices, but rather the digital copies of books themselves. For one, they’re way too expensive. “Monica’s Story” cost me $15; I found the hardcover for $11.98 at buybooks.com. The e-book version of “Uncovering Clinton,” by NEWSWEEK reporter Michael Isikoff, that I bought for the Rocket cost me $20 at barnesandnoble.com, which sells the hardcover print version just a few clicks away for $17.50. This seems absurd considering that publishers don’t have to print, truck, warehouse or ship e-books. Moreover, with the existing technology, you can’t give or lend your e-book to a friend, unless you’re willing to hand over the expensive hardware along with it. “The publishers set the price, and they are still trying to figure out what it should be,” says SoftBook’s COO, Andrew Preston, who thinks that prices will come down as publishers become less nervous about the new business.
Another problem is the weak selection. Rocket eBook users can choose from about 700 digital books; SoftBook offers 100. You will find a limited selection of popular titles, like “Angela’s Ashes” and “Into Thin Air,” but both lists consist largely of business trade books and self-help tomes. There’s a smattering of classics like “Jane Eyre” and Shakespeare, but you’ll run into many more titles by authors you won’t recognize. The selection will improve, since more and more publishers are getting on board. Stephen King’s publisher, for example, simultaneously released the hardcover and e-book versions of his new novel “The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon.” And last week the e-book makers tentatively agreed on a technical standard for formatting digital-book content–pre-empting a VHS-vs.-Beta-like standards war–which should eventually result in more and better electronic reading for all.
Early adopters who don’t mind shelling out hundreds of dollars for the hardware won’t be disappointed with either the SoftBook or the Rocket eBook, though, on balance, Rocket’s was the winner. The rest of us should probably wait, because the technology is rapidly evolving. This summer a Massachusetts company called Glassbook will test an electronic book that can reside on your laptop. Peanut Press (www.peanutpress.com) offers e-books for the PalmPilot and Windows CE devices for those who want to dip a toe rather than take the plunge. Joe Jacobsen, of the MIT Media Lab, insists that the electronic book of tomorrow “will look just like a book that you have on your shelf today, with hundreds of pages.” Jacobsen says his group’s paper- and computing-based technology could make such an e-book a reality in three to four years. “When you’re done reading ‘King Lear,’ press a button and, poof, you’re reading the latest copy of your favorite magazine.” I’m not holding my breath, but that sounds like an e-book everyone could love.
