Unmaking Book

I used to draw the line at books. the more my life became digital and downloadable, dominated by DVDs and MP3s, the more dust that gathered on my analog music tapes and VHS cassettes, the more I resolved never to abandon the trusty old paper- ink-and-glue devices that proliferate on my shelves and pile up on my floor. As a die-hard bibliophile, I'd trot out every argument in the book against e-books: they're too clunky to curl up with; they're too expensive; they can't re-create print- perfect text or the smell of a new hardback.

And then I got a sneak peek at the new color SoftBook from Thomson Multimedia, due to hit store shelves in late September, and my doubts began to fade like an aging first edition. The original SoftBook was a fairly hefty creature, a coffee-table tome with a $600 price tag. This baby has shed one-third of its weight (down to a svelte 2 lbs.) and 15% of its size. And at about half the price of the original, it's a lot easier on your wallet too.

But it was the color screen that made me wonder if my home library would soon be gathering dust in the garage. In a single generation the SoftBook has gone from a so-so monochrome LCD screen to a brilliant, million-color VGA version good enough to reprint magazine photos. To show me what it could do, the model I saw came with this year's SPORTS ILLUSTRATED swimsuit edition preloaded--in eye-popping 3-D.

The idea is that the SoftBook--or something like it--will be the only book, magazine or photo album you'll ever need. This model can also do a lot of the Palm Pilot's work--like keeping a calendar and address book. It's not quite as portable as the Palm, however; it's something for your book bag rather than your shirt pocket. SoftBook Press, which makes the software for the device, thinks the addition of color will help it break into the school market. You could download a whole e-curriculum for the price of a few textbooks.

The cost of downloading titles was what made previous e-books prohibitively expensive. Why bother reading texts electronically if you're going to have to pay full price for each title you input? Thankfully, publishers' attitudes toward e-books have undergone a sea change. SoftBook says it will launch the new model with a shelfful of titles at 25% to 50% off. Its sister company, RocketBook, is also relaunching, with a monochrome device that will cost nothing as long as you pay $20 a month for a set number of downloads. If you're a voracious reader who doesn't care about color pictures, that will be the model to pick.

The only trouble with the new SoftBook and RocketBook is that the text is still ever so slightly pixelated--not as smooth or as eye-pleasing as the text you're reading now. The newest Pocket PCs do a slightly better job, thanks to Microsoft's ClearType technology.But Pocket PCs are a little too small to read an entire novel on--unless you happen to enjoy squinting.

For my money, SoftBook has hit the sweet spot in terms of size, weight and color. Now what high-tech bibliophiles need is for SoftBook and Microsoft to get their acts together. Perhaps a few versions down the road, someone will chip in with an olfactory circuit that gives e-books a new-book smell, at which point my old paper-and-glue devices won't stand a chance. Maybe I better clear some space in the garage, next to the cassettes and videotapes.