And more legible type is on its way. Microsoft is promising to include its ClearType technique, which makes electronic type nearly as readable as a newspaper's, in Windows next year. Both NuvoMedia's Rocket eBook and the SoftBook Press SoftBook are fairly intuitive, once you figure out which weirdly labeled switch turns the machine on. Both let you turn a book off by closing it, just like a real book. They also have the added feature of opening to the last page you read, much like a book placed face-down.
Buttons turn the pages.
Styluses let you poke at on-screen menus without smudging the screen with your fingers. Both have a search function, a clear improvement over the book. Both let you download new books from growing lists of titles. The SoftBook sets itself off with a lovely leather cover that is ostensibly booklike, even though the leather book is as popular these days as the raccoon coat. Its pages are more booklike, with actual page numbers and page headings.