Ah, books. I love reading, and I have but one wish: a great e-book enviroment. Actually, there is no e-book enviroment. Its sparse, filled with trees and no books. Theres no hardware to speak of thats actually worth the money they charge. And the e-books that are sold with nasty locks on our rights.

The issue, as I see it, is there are many issues. First, lets look at the hardware, or rather the lack. There is the Amazon Kindle, however, but it does not fit the bill. Good e-book hardware would need to be small, light-about the same weight as a paperback- and read any type of e-book format.

Pretty basic requirements, but it would be awesome if the hardware didn’t wash out under bright lights. Then I could take the hardware anywhere and everywhere, read while I’m eating, read while on the bus… etc etc.

Now, a few more requirements, well, okay one. NO DRM! If I buy a book at Chapters, I can resell that book, share it, loan it out. Why can I not do that with my e-books? And, why can I not use my e-books on Linux?

Also, why are the e-books the same price as regular books? There is no tree, no carbon footprint. There are less costs. In fact, an e-book of say a paperback that sells at ten bucks, should be had at five bucks. Enough to cover bandwidth, royalties, and profit. Even eight bucks would be great.

Yeah, I’m hard to please.