Espresso Books?

By Lonnie Cruse

I keep hearing that someday in the not-too-distant future, book stores will have an espresso-like machine that will spit out a copy of whatever book you want to buy. No more warehouses storing tons of books that cost lots of trees to produce. No more shelf after shelf of books to browse through. No waiting for a book ordered to come in. Instant books. Sounds good to me.

But I wonder, how WILL we browse through books? Look at covers? Read the first chapter? Read the back or inside flap?

Will the store have a copy of each book for us to look at? Or will we have to choose from a computer screen without being able to physically examine the book? (Okay, we often do that now by buying online, but I don't know if I can survive in a world with NO books available in a book store. I'm a touchy/feely kind of person.)

Of course, with this new technology, there will still be trees used for books, and books once used that have to be dealt with (forever stored/shelved as a keeper, donated, swapped, given away, trashed, whatever. Such hard choices.)

No idea if these books will cost more, though I suspect they will, at least in the beginning. No idea if this new technology will catch on, but I suspect it will, as well. No idea if we will see it here in rural America, likely we'll be some of the last. But it's an idea whose time has probably come. I'm waiting to see what will happen. Yes, I'll definitely try it.

What about you? Interested in this type of technology? Not interested? Waiting patiently? Running in the other direction? And have you heard any rumors about it that go beyond what I've blogged about? Let us know!