The technology to give you a decent screen for reading is available, but these devices, so far, are primarily for music. So they skimp on the screen. This is about to change.

A few devices in the upper end of this market have other media in mind. Some play MP4 videos. A decent screen for watching videos ought to be better for reading too.

These devices may someday use something closer to electronic paper:

http://www2.parc.com/dhl/projects/gyricon/

When computers first became available for normal homes and offices they were used primarily as typewriter replacements. Their use in creating collaborative works (or music or video, etc.) was limited by lack of imagination and by lack of connection.

That won’t be the case with these reader devices. We know now what computers connected to the Internet are capable of (at least we have a better idea today than ten years ago) – so limited imagination will be less of a problem. And these handheld devices will soon be connected to broadband wifi – probably all the time.

Once this happens, it will change how we use the printed word. We will interact with these works. Books, particularly nonfiction, will be less like something that gathers dust on a shelf and more like an ongoing conversation.

Something with a screen the size of a paperback book, longer battery life than the iPaq’s handful of hours, preferably a bit lighter.

Ah, well. It should arrive before too long. Although I’ve been thinking that about electronic books for years now, so what do I know?

Of course, by itself the iPod or a similar item will only be the store of knowledge–I’ll want something with a larger screen for actually reading the documents. I also hope that screen technology continues to improve so that reading a screen becomes as easy on the eyes as reading a printed document.