Nobody needs to convince me that digital books have numerous benefits. I like books and I'm devoted to digitality, and to my mind a meeting of the two creates an obvious win-win situation. That doesn't mean that there aren't advantages to print, or sometimes disadvantages to digital. But it does mean that when it's done right there's a lot to be gained from digital books. And what does being done right entail? Obviously I'll want to be able to underline, or in some other way mark certain passages. I'll want to be able to collect these passages and save them - both within the book and also outside of it by, for instance, being able to send passages to my mail. I'll want to be able to run a search - not only on the text I've marked but also on the entire text of the book. Of course these are all things that any basic ebook reader can do. And if I can have all this in my phone, and keep it in my pocket, I certainly can't complain.

There could be more. I enjoy encountering marginalia in books I find in used book stores (and even in libraries) and I'd appreciate this capability either in my ebook reader or via some other tool. Tools that permit this actually do exist, or at least have existed. It seems that though more than a handful of people actually like this sort of feature, when it comes to really using it we realize that on the whole we relate to reading as primarily a private activity. For this reason I'm also willing to forgo another feature that would seem to be something I'd want. Though I like tools that allow me to publicly mark-up web pages, in order to share my thoughts and reactions with others, there's good reason to view a book as a complete (I'm trying not to write "finished") entity, one whose value is diminished when we make its writing a party. In other words, marginalia should stick to the margins and not attempt to change the text itself.

Since I have ebook readers on both my desktop and laptop I like the idea of being able to synch my books and have where I stopped reading on the phone be the page the book opens to on the desktop. But even though there's advantages to that I think I can do without.

Even though I really love books I'm not one of those people who thinks a special tactile relationship is established between reader and read by turning pages, or that the smell of a book is part of its essence. And even if it is, the day when ebook readers will be scented like old books probably isn't far off. But I doubt that would satisfy those who tell us that they don't want to abandon printed books because they love their smell. Then again, once that technology will be satisfactorily developed chances are good that instead of giving a scent to the ebook reader, each book, or even each page, will be able to give off its own specific smell according to its developing plot. I'd probably prefer the smell of an old printed book more than I'd want that option.