Lisa Jardine on eBooks

BBC's magazine features Lisa Jardine's sceptical response to claims that ebooks will replace printed books. The mistake, she points out, is to ignore some of the ways we use conventional books e.g. annotating and sharing. So ebooks are likely to augment, rather than replace.

While I'm not so convinced about limitations in annotating ebooks (apps are bound to appear to augment the current, passive experience), sharing certainly doesn't seem to gel with ebook commerce at least as it has appeared so far. One thing I'm less sure about is the claim that e-books will never replace the sense/emotional experience of bound books. Apple has certainly delivered sensual and emotional experience across electronic platforms, and most particularly on personal devices such as the iPhone and iPod Touch. So why not for ebooks too?

[via Nico_MacDonald tweet]