When it comes to technological innovation, I am generally in the early adopter or early majority categories. (Which one usually depends on how expensive the innovation in question is, as I am also quite cheap.) After all, I am easily tempted by shiny new things, and I am friends with many early adopters, all of whom are happy to share their latest enthusiasms with me.

That said, I was pretty slow to explore the world of ebooks, even though I started hearing about them ten years ago when I was a work-study intern at Yale University Press. I was just too much a fan of the printed book. So aside from an occasional venture into the archives of Project Gutenberg, I let the ebook revolution pass me by even as I continued to read a ridiculous number of books each year.

Two things finally changed my attitude. First, I became a librarian. Second, I got an iPhone.
Continue reading →