Honestly, I can't imagine reading an entire book in digital format. Being somewhat technologically challenged (though, improving every day), I still print out and read articles I'm editing. I also have to print out and read my own writing to really get a feel for changes that need to be made. I read the New York Times online, but I also subscribe to the paper version because, well, it's comfortable.

But I might be eating my words in the near future. According to this Washington Post article, digital "e-books" will be on the market as soon as next month! IRex Technologies' iLiad Reader is scheduled for release later this month and the $350 Sony Reader will follow soon after.

According to the article, "e-book readers -- a breed of upcoming devices designed to hold thousands of text files and display them at the same resolution of a printed page -- could change the landscape of how books are both purchased and read." They are about the same size as a softcover novel. Moreover, E-book readers are "capable of accurately mimicking the way light reflects on paper. But moving beyond the functionality of an ordinary book, the reader can enlarge text for the visually challenged as well as provide features normally found in a laptop or tablet computer, such as wireless Internet access, memory card storage and text search."

So, where do the digital books come from? Book publishers have started converting their titles to digital, so that customers can buy "the book" and then download them to the reader. These e-books will cost a little less than the hardback versions. Random House has already converted more than 3000 titles. And, if a book's copyright has expired, it will be made available for free! For example, here at Project Gutenberg.

The article points out that the readers are still kind of pricey. But I wonder if that's really accurate. For $350 dollars, I'd have access to a few thousand (and that's sure to increase as the fad catches on and publishing houses step up the conversion process) books. Which, if I were to buy them, would cost me more that $350 altogether.

Of course, this information about the e-book readers isn't "new news" to people tuned into technological advances. But it is news to most of the rest of us, paper-reading folk. I'm skeptical about being converted myself. But, who knows? This is the digital age, after all. And, let's face it, that Sony Reader is pretty!