Ted Shelton, a New Yorker who heads an Internet software company, uses a Softbook to carry a few novels, the Wall Street Journal, and his business documents when he travels. The high-tech tome also lets him store and peruse certain magazines and other newspapers that total no more than 8,000 pages. Before boarding a flight one recent morning, Mr. Shelton plugged the e-book into his phone line and connected to the online Softbook bookstore, which sells some 1,000 electronic titles, usually at hardback prices. Shelton stores his books and documents on Softbook's secure server, which he can access through a phone line. New electronic books hold promise of mini-Gutenberg revolution in electronic publishing.
Widespread acceptance is still an open question.
In fact, the technology could change the way authors write and publishers sell books, Mr. Sachs says. You can have hyperlinks in a book. But Ben Boyd, vice president of communications at Barnes and Noble, which sells titles electronically on its Web site, points out that collecting books on a hard drive doesn't carry the same cachet as a stacked bookshelf. The tangible, smelling, touching sensation of reading is not going to be replaced. Sachs agrees, predicting that, while paper books will retain a presence, digital pages are here to stay.