The Dakota County Library already makes use of netLibrary, which lets you download e-books to your home computer. If everyone owned their own reader, if they could access the library's database and download any book, this would save the trouble of managing physical books. Managing physical books costs publishers money, too. They often charge as much for e-books, while sidestepping printing, warehouse and return costs. E-books are easier to revise.
Publishers stand to make a bigger profit, so long as they can avoid a Napster-like piracy scheme.
My ultimate fear is that the printed word itself will disappear. The biggest factor in paper books vs. e-books is the public. If books do fall victim to the modern age, I have one final consolation. According to trusted sources, it is entirely possible to electrocute yourself while reading an e-book on the bathroom throne. Cindy Poch lives in Woodbury, where she is currently hoarding mysteries, Reader's Digests and those little paper slips that come in fortune cookies.