First and foremost, Happy New Year everyone!

I hope you had a wonderful time and here’s to 2010 and all that lays before us.

It being a New Year, it is of course time to talk about the future and in particular e-books. Yes again, don’t give me that look. Specifically I’d like to talk about the perception of e-books and readers and mention some of the hurdles ahead. Part of this comes from two articles Regis linked me to and part of it is from good old personal experience.

Starting with the articles we have two big ones in the e-lit world, DIY book scanning and Copyrights & The Blind. In a way both are related in that they each deal with copyright, but both also show a glimpse of a possible future.

We won’t deal with the loaded issues that are DRM and copyrights, rather some of the comments made. There are already e-readers for blind people, but never one to miss an opportunity, Amazon plans to make a blind accessible Kindle. Daniel Reetz, in the scanning article, was prompted to make his cheap book scanner by book prices for his college courses.  As that community grows, there will be more and more available for people to download. It may be free, it may be pirated or it may come from the industry itself.

“There have to be things that you get with an e-book that you don’t get by making your own copies,” says Samuelson. “It’s not such as stark challenge for copyright owners, because not many people are going to take the trouble to make their own scanner system. Most of us want the convenience of buying digital books for the Kindle, Nook or Sony Reader.” -Pamela Samuelson, a professor at University of California at Berkeley, who specializes in digital-copyright law.

Webcomics have even commented on the possibilities of greater uptake in e-readers. Anyone who has ever had a packed commute next to someone trying to read a broadsheet newspaper would welcome Mr. Business getting his news through a reader or a phone. Perhaps it is a little too sci-fi to imagine, but I would love to see school children up to college students being freed of the burden of expensive and oftentimes heavy schoolbooks. That same device could be used for your morning paper and your evening read. Some companies already have readers planned for professionals. Dvd sales nowadays include special features above and beyond the movie, even in the “regular” edition of a disc. Some authors already publish companions to their universes that further flesh out and explain the book in your hand. The one I saw most recently was a fable and folklore book based in the Discworld which can be used to give greater background to Unseen Academicals.

In the end it comes down to how it is used and why. Certainly this is something I ran into with my father this Christmas. Trying to pick a gift for me, he knew I wanted an e-reader. I had my eye on the Sony Reader before they shelved it and re-launched with two versions of the same. I would love to own a Kindle, but they were unlikely to be on sale. My father, who has been a technology early adopter all his life, couldn’t understand why I’d want such a device, or why he’d pay so much for what he saw as a one trick pony. In the end it was easier to tell him to get me something else (I’ll tell you what it is when I actually get it). This Christmas I myself picked up several books. We asked here before if you prefer paper or plastic and people were divided. However e-readers are here to stay and they are no one trick pony, not for long anyway. E-readers are e-volving, if you’ll pardon the pun, and they aren’t just about the book in your hands anymore. I have my novel for my commute beside me and I admit freely that I love the feel and smell of the paper, but I would adore a device to fill in for all the other paper in my life. The paper we’re forced to live with or have to carry for whatever reason.

I foresee the fight between e-reader and print book going on for a while more. It is like the battle waged between digital cameras and film cameras. Both have their supporters and detractors, however going forward the cold plastic device you may imagine a reader to be may not necessarily be trying to replace your warm fantasy printed world. In my mind, nothing will beat a coffee, biscuit and good book in your hands, no matter how many buttons it has. At the same time, I want one. Not for that warm time with a good drink and good book, but for all the other times I’d be carrying material that needs or deserves reading.

Perhaps e-readers will win us over in the end by offering those special features like our movies, earning their place beside the paperback and your favourite cup, the handy tool for textbooks and papers tasked to support our fantasies.