Great minds think alike, eh bro? It's too bad I didn't think of it earlier, nook's probably going to be sold out until next year, unless they happen to get some in at the semi-local store or something. Ah well, I am nothing if not patient.

And as far as selection, tons of old classics are available. Gutenberg has tons and tons of them, most of which you can download in ebook format. Hence why I'm more interested in the nook, because I wouldn't have to convert the files to read them, just upload them to the device. Also as I mentioned before, you can find a lot of newer books for free or fairly low prices. I have ebook versions of titles like Temeraire and Perdido Street Station that were offered for free. You just have to know where to look. Barnes and Noble offers a selection of free ebooks that changes fairly regularly and there are places like the Suvudu library that offer free ebooks of recently published titles (with the publisher's permission, of course). Because the nook doesn't use its own proprietary format and relies instead on the standard format of ebooks, there are a lot of options when it comes to actually acquiring the ebooks themselves.

There's also a chance that you'll start seeing offers like the rereleased Disney movies where you could get a free digital copy of a book when you buy the actual paper version. I see it as being a great promotional move to help raise awareness about the ease and quality of ebooks, especially with the advent of the readers.

And don't sell older books short, I can see ebooks becoming a popular way to get older out of print books back out, maybe not by a publisher but by the authors themselves. Out of print books also tend to be out of contract so the authors would be well within their rights to digitize and offer the books online either for free or for sale. Imagine a world where books never go out of print and you never have to hunt for old, obscure titles or get stuck with tattered, stained, ripped old paperbacks. That's what ebooks could be in the future, provided there's enough support for it.

~DragonHeart~