E-books Continue to Move Into the Mainstream

As a reader, I prefer physical books. They are easy to share, portable, donate-able and perfect for a sunny day or a rainy evening. I believe in bookstores as community centers and value the assistance of the staff and the ability to discover new books by browsing the shelves and tables.

With all that being said, I am also a fan of e-books. And with the growing number of e-books sold, it is obvious that they have found many fans across the spectrum.

My first experience with reading e-books for pleasure was when I had finished the first volume in the Hunger Games trilogy at 9 p.m. on a Sunday and I just had to start the next book. Within seconds, I was reading Catching Fire. I have purchased the physical books for my personal library, but it was a treat to be able to indulge the urge to keep reading so quickly and seamlessly.

E-books have been available for years. When the web started to come into its own many people saw the opportunity to share texts to a wider readership. Project Gutenberg made its collection of digitized public domain texts available online in 2004. Now, this is no longer a scholarly enterprise. According to the American Association of Publishers 13.5 percent of adult trade fiction sold in 2010 was in the e-book format.

E-books can be read on any type of computer, from desktops to even your smartphone, or on a dedicated e-reading device. With the growth of tablets, many more people are finding e-books to be as compelling as Angry Birds or Facebook. Publishers and authors hope that the new technology might actually bring new readers to books or help lapsed readers of fiction to rediscover getting lost in a great story.

For textbooks, e-books have changed how we use these resources. Content can be updated by the publisher, and multimedia and interactivity can be added to the reading experience. Lighter backpacks are just a side benefit.

Now that Fairfax County and  Prince William County libraries offer e-books, you can give them a try for yourself. Most devices are supported, with one striking exception—Amazon's Kindle.

With rumors of a new Amazon tablet coming this fall, we'll see if that continues to be the case. To buy e-books, you can use Amazon's Kindle App on almost any device, Barnes and Noble's Nook device of App, or from your favorite independent store through their partnership with  Google Bookstore.

There is no better value, however, than the experience of reading a picture book with a young child, even before they can talk, or reading a bedtime story with your voice taking on the various roles or again, being unplugged and away from it all and re-reading an old favorite with no batteries required. E-books just fill another role, and creators are just coming up with new ways of sharing information and entertainment.