e-Books are not books

The statement "e-Books are not books" is, on its face, a tautology. Of course they're not books. The exist as bits and can be viewed only by a "reader", a device or program that renders pixels to a person.

My point is beyond the immediate observation. e-Books are not books, and will have capabilities we do not associate with books today. e-Books are a new form, just as the automobile was not a horseless carriage and a word processor is not a typewriter.

We humans need time to understand a new thing. We didn't "get" electronic computing right away. ENIAC was an electronic version of a mechanical adding machine; a few years later EDVAC was a computer.

Shifts in technology can be big or small. Music was distributed on paper; the transition to 78s and LPs was a major shift. It took us some time to fully appreciate the possibilities of recorded music. The shift to compact discs (small shiny plastic instead of large, warping vinyl) was a small one; little changed in our consumption or in the economic model. The shift to digital music on forms other than shiny plastic discs is a big one, and the usage and economic model will change.

An on-line newspaper is not a newspaper. It will become a form of journalism -- but not called a newspaper, nor will it have the same capabilities or limitations of ink slapped onto dead trees.

e-Books are not books. The stories and information presented to us on Kindle and Nook readers is the same information as in printed books, but that will change. For example, I expect that annotations will become the norm for e-books. Multiple readers will provide annotations, with comments for themselves and for others. (Think of it as today's e-book with Twitter and Google.) One person has blogged about their method for reading books (http://www.freestylemind.com/how-to-read-a-book) and how they keep notes and re-read portions of books for better understanding. Their system uses post-it notes. I predict that future e-Book readers will allow for the creation and storage of personal notes, and the sharing of notes with friends and the world.

Or perhaps e-Books will let us revise books and make corrections. (Think "e-Books today combined with Wikipedia".)

And that is why an e-book is not a book.