Of all the fantastic features of a e-book device, the greatest flaw has always been the inability to either share or borrow books from friends and family. One of the oldest methods of allowing for others to read new material, e-book lending has so far been in the same category as pirating; but that looks to be changing.
The Kindle reader is now allowing users to borrow and lend their e-books to other Kindle users, so long as the publisher and author allow it. This could end up being quite a revolution in the world of e-books, and will likely go a long way in shifting the current thoughts of the cons of e-book ownership.While mainstream authors and publishers will more than likely lock down this method of sharing, small companies and authors will have the increased ability to get massive exposure. In this digital age, the ability to lend a book will be vastly increased because of the lack of the physical limitations of a paper book.
No matter how much you try to share a paper book, there is only 1 copy and can only be used by one person at a time. When sharing e-books, you would have the potential ability to share your book with your group of friends and family all at the same time. Even if you were to buy up hundreds of discount books online you would still have the same essential problem that 1 physical book can only be in one pair of hands at a time.It sometimes takes years for books to really catch on if they aren't marketed by a large publishing company because of the slow ways that books make their way around. By increasing the pace of this sharing, the ability to change perceptions and realities would also have a corresponding rise.
The realities of the digital age aren't quite as romantic as the days of old, everything truly can be said in zeros and ones. But what the digital age lacks in romance it makes up for in the efficiency of the movement of ideas; and this revolution of the travel of information will lead to roads unknown in the near future.
