The World of Digital Books

All over the world, books are going digital.  Last week, American authors and publishers reached an agreement with Google for it to sell electronic versions of copyrighted works that have gone out of print. 

"Almost overnight, not only has the largest publishing deal been struck, but the largest bookshop in the world has been built, even if it is not quite open for business yet," wrote Neill Denny, editor of The Bookseller, a London-based trade publication.

Right now, the bookshop would operate only in the US. And this agreement is only one of the ways books are making a technological leap.

This month, a group of European national libraries and archives plan to open Europeana - an online database of two million books, films, paintings, newspapers, and sound clips.

In Japan, the mobile phone is a popular way to read e-books. Sales of digital manga comic books are leading the way, and Penguin is optimistic about selling e-books to mobile phone users in India.

Stanza is an application for the iPhone that lets people read e-books. About half a million in more than 50 countries have downloaded this application.

I think all of these new initiatives to digitize books are great! I would definitely take advantage of reading e-books, whether it be on a mobile phone or on a device like the Kindle. I think reading the books on a mobile phone is an especially great idea because I take my phone with me wherever I go; that means whenever I have a free moment, I can just whip out my phone and read a book.