And in dissent

The publishing world continues to collapse. Ads down, reviews folding, imprints getting swallowed, and editors being spit out. I talked to an agent friend about all this yesterday, and mentioned that I thought a subscription book-buying model, much like emusic offers music consumers, or some kind of digital shopping option will be the savior of the industry.

But he thinks e-readers suck, and no one will ever ever want to use one to read a book.

I disagree. I think it's coming. I think people in publishing - like record executives before them - may perhaps be the last ones to see the light. But that issue - is the technology ready to really convert the masses, and will it ever be - remains a tremendous sticking point.

Here's a dissenting view about the quality of e-readers from a technophile source. As one comment notes, and I paraphrase: "I just want a book with real paper to carry around. The same book all the time, but different content depending on what I'm reading."

In other words, the book experience needs to be virtually replicated if e-readers are ever going to replace books.

I buy that.