Reactionary that I am, I don't love e-readers. But I can't give you a single good, non-sentimental reason why it's a bad idea for books to become electronified, so I choose not to argue about it in general. (Can anyone else think of a good, non-sentimental reason? I'd love to co-opt it so I can argue with Rob.)

Incidentally, I hope you can affirm that the books listed in that graphic are not ones on your own reading list. If you were reading The Da Vinci Code and The Internet for Dummies I'd be extremely surprised.

No, Katherine, I don't think Dan Brown can write for toffee (as we say on this side of the pond). And I'm too haughtily technical to read anything that doesn't have 'Advanced' in the title. What I will say is that I like the idea of someone combining the two to produce a novel called 'The Da Vinci Code for Dummies'. I even wonder whether it shouldn't have been called that all along.

Because a book will still work after you’ve dropped it in the bath, poured red wine into it, or sat on it in the car.

Mind you, I can t wait to get my hands on one of these gizmos, although I still think the Sony is the best looking one so far. It all depends, of course, on the cost of downloading the books. How do you think they’ll compare to printed books, Rob?

Dee

So, Dee, if they were waterproof, you'd only have to worry about not sitting on them. That's not much to hang the future of the paperback industry on. "Choose paper books - after all, you never know when you might sit on one."

Re: cost. I suspect they'll trigger a price war. And all concerned will try to invent as many different data formats and copy protection mechanisms as humanly possible - then they'll try to tie up exclusive deals solely for their platform - all of which will make them less appealing. But think about it: on the one hand, no returns, no print bills, no re-print lead times. On the other hand, anyone could turn a finished manuscript into a book and sell it (for download) on Amazon (or equivalent). And it might sell one unit or a million.

One of the beauties of the book is the sheer wealth of shapes, sizes, colours, textures and smells that they come in. Even after 10 years in the business I'm still like a small child when a particularly handsome volume comes out of a new delivery.

Of course, e-readers are fine for mass market, standardised paperbacks but the day that threatens the potential for books to delight as an aesthetic and physical object will be a poor day for civilisation indeed.

Publishers and booksellers will have to adjust and what it may mean is more beautiful editions being published of successful e-books. You can't put 500 e-books on a shelf can you?

No doubt the industry as we know it will change massively. But I only see potential for the book, an e-reader can free books and their creators to achieve greater heights of loveliness.

E-readers and their websites will be like the old Athena whereas proper books and bookshops will be like an art gallery. If we can have Ikea alongside Vitra and Gucci alongside Primark then I can't possibly see how the 'demise' of the book is anything but a false dawn.

Adam, I think that would be great. It baffles me when people say that books are a physical work of art. Some are, but A and B format paperbacks aren't! Printed on newsprint, bound with glue and the majority pulped within three years of printing... if e books result in new demand for high quality bindings, that would be superb.

Rob has answered his own questions. (Why doesn't everyone...? and What will they look like in four years?) The answer is that they will have been designed into obsolescence because manufacturers are never content to let you keep using something that works, they have to up-date and however much they say that their latest gizmos are retro-compatible, eventually you cannot read the old stuff because the dits have degraded (or other really helpful techno-speak.) E-book readers should be OK for ephemera but not for reference books.

The appeal of the book for me mostly it's 'thinginess', the owning of an object, especially if it's one you feel emotionally engaged with, or is particularly attractive (the Monster series, God's End, other independent titles such as Pendragon Press or Gray Friar).

But on the other hand, I don't feel that way about every book I buy. There's plenty of more disposable reading I'd happily replace with an electronic file. Room for both, methinks. Books won't vanish (is there a more perfect technology for reading than the cheap, robust, portable, easily stored mass market paperback?), but a lot of content will be availible electronically.

So says me.

//comment from em// - oh you, sneaking in a compliment there! x

I suppose most of my reasons are sentimental, too. I will never tire of the look, feel and smell of that new or old treasure I found (especially the scent of the old treasure) on a proper shelf somewhere. All of the people I've personally ever asked have said the same, they'd rather have a book.

If I remember right, a few years ago there were articles on this, when it was still rather unheard of to many, that predicted the end of paper books. Hasn't happened the way they thought as far as I know and Anne brings up a very valid, non-sentimental point; the constant upgrading of devices. Advancements certainly can be great, but if you're like me and a good chunk of the population, you can't afford to keep tossing the old device to get the new one. And it's aggravating!

Also, what of those that for reading on computer screens and the like is more difficult, beyond just the size of the words? I confess I haven't used one of these readers, so I don't know the quality of them each, but reading from a print book is just...different. And better. And no, you can't line your bookshelves without books. Some of us still love that...

Well said, Adam.

While I drool over new technology – and I WILL have one of these in some form or another eventually – I will never stop buying books at a faster rate than I can read them. I recently spent a happy couple of days building a whole wall of tall Ikea bookcases in the bedroom and then filling them with my books. They're a mixture ranging from antique editions, new collector editions of the classics, first editions, hardbacks and paperbacks right through to cheap pulp copies. I love them all. I wake up every morning to the sight of them, and they're my treasure.

I'd like to see a combination of the two. I want to own the actual books, but I'd also like the freedom of having a copy on an ebook, and I don’t believe I'm alone there. Eventually all these various versions will shake down in the same way MP3 players have. When that happens, I'd like to see publishers offering their customers, as an alternative to buying the downloaded version, a free key to download any printed book they buy – presumably there’s a techno solution to avoid multiple downloads – so we could have the best of both options.

Dee