On the other hand, I've been reading eBooks on Palms/Smart Phones for 13 years now, and currently do more than half of my reading on such. With eBooks on my phone, I can do things that are impossible with printed books. I can carry many of them around. I can read in short bursts effectively, since they're portable and on my always-with-me device. I never lose a book — the two companies I buy from maintain my library in the cloud, and the free books I get from Gutenberg et al are always there.

In thinking about this, I'm beginning to regard “book” as two different things, the same as I have regarded “movie” since VHS came out. When I go to see a movie in the theater, I am renting the right to see it once, on a big dang screen, surrounded by people, in a dark place that smells like popcorn and corn syrup. I don't object to the fact that, when it's over, I have nothing to sell, trade, keep, display, etc. It's the movie experience. I can talk about having seen it, quote it, blog it, review it, pan it, etc. But the “it” doesn't belong to me in any way other than experientially. Two months from now, though, I can buy the DVD. That “thing” is mine. I can watch it 100 times, loan it to my brother, sell it at a used video store, loan it, display the case on my shelf, etc. They are two fundamentally different types of transactions.

I buy some books now in print because I make the pre-purchase decision that the physical-ness of the book is important to me. Large, colorful photo books. Tutorial/teaching books that I need to mark-up. Funny books that I know I'll only read once and want to loan away forever. Books by certain authors that are important enough to me to warrant space on my shelf as “personal historical art.”

If you want the rights associated with a DVD, buy the DVD. If you want to sit in a theater and watch on a big screen with your arm around your gal, do that. If you want to trade a book, give it away, use it as a coaster… buy the print version. If you want to read it on your phone while standing in line at the BMV, buy the eBook.

It's not complicated to me anymore. It's just two different things. Choice is good. Yes?