Books, I love them. I love to read, from the latest Terry Pratchett to the Engineering Bible. Ofcourse, getting the latest in your favorite form is not as easy as it seems to be, especially for fiction.

If you like to read fiction, you probably know what I'm talking about. A lot of fiction these days comes out in series, often series of 3, but on occasion there's no telling where it will end. If you are into these series and you're a bit like me, you want the latest addition ASAP. Herein lies the problem this entry is about.

Most of the time, the first release will be a limited hardcover edition, followed by the A4 sized paperback and only then followed by the A5 sized paperback (pocket). Often, it can take six months to a year after the hardcover release before the pocket edition comes out. No big deal, if you're a fan of hardcovers, just buy that.

But, if you're like me and prefer the pocket editions, you have a problem. I don't get the whole hardcover deal in either case. Why would I want a hardcover? They're usually bigger and heavier and don't handle nearly as well as the pocket edition. To make things worse they are also often printed on glossy paper which is extremely annoying and a strain on the eyes to read for hours.

When I read a good book, it can really absorb me and I want to finish it yesterday, this leads to me using any excuse to read. So, I read on the train, behind my desk if the internet fails, in bed (and I mean in comfortable way, not sitting up with your back against the wall), taking a bath, taking a dump, standing around waiting, and I've even been known to read while I walk a significant distance (I've noticed people look at you like you're mad when you do that :-)). Most of these are simply very impractical to do with the hardcover or 'big' paperback editions. Hardcovers look better, ofcourse, but I don't buy books just to fill the bookshelve, I buy them to read them! I say, give me my damned pocket, NOW!

A good question is, why do books follow this pattern, with the pocket being released quite a while after the hardcover? It doesn't really make any sense to me, it just annoys. Do the publishers expect me to get the hardcover when it comes out, read it while being severely annoyed by the format, and then later on when I want to read again get crazy and buy the pocket because it handles better? Do they want me to be annoyed with them? Isn't that bad for business? If somebody knows the answer to this one, feel free to enlighten me!

One of my hopes on this is that the publishers will release the pocket editions sooner, but hey, what is the chance of that? A better solution is the ebook. There's quite some innovation going on in the ebook hardware, soon it will look just like paper. If the hardware is in a nice form factor, it could be better and easier than a real book. That single reader could carry your thousand favorite books, provide a direct search and download capability, etc. Read which book you want, when you want and how you want it - get new ones instantly. One of the problems with ebooks is, ofcourse, DRM - which I am known not to be a fan of. Another problem is pricing. A lot of ebooks are priced nearly the same as the real thing, but the costs per copy are much less. Furthermore, I would still like the real book on the shelve as well, but I'm sure as hell not going to pay twice for the same book, especially if the ebook versions are of a comparable price.

What they should do: bundle the books with the ebooks! Buy any edition of the book and get the ebook version for free (immediate download ofcourse) - that is what I would like to see, though I doubt it will ever become a reality, let alone mainstream.