And it's all Stephen King's fault.

I would never have seriously considered the electronic book until a couple of weeks ago. I mean, I love my Palm IIIe. It really *is* the personal assistant that I need to keep on top of things. But to actually *read* something on the Palm seemed ludicrous. I'm a book junkie, after all. I took book-making classes in art school, and even flirted with a career as a publisher for some five years. Ink-on-paper books are the *only* way to go, I've always maintained.

Well, maybe I was wrong. Now I think this eBook thing could work. But back to Stephen King.

A few weeks ago, King became the most celebrated author to release a piece of fiction *exclusively* to the electronic book market. At 66 pages, 'Riding the Bullet' is more of a short story than a full-blown eBook, but it's been an unprecedented success. With tens of thousands of copies downloaded during the first week of release, it was demonstrated without a doubt that there are consumers ready for the digital delivery of literature.

My interest was piqued. Though I couldn't imagine reading even a short story on my computer screen, and though I don't own one of those crazy new RocketBook electronic book devices, I did stumble upon peanutpress.com, who have created their own eBook program for the PalmOs, offering 'Riding the Bullet' on their site for only $2.50 US. A quick and rather painless credit card charge, download and hotsync later, and I was reading my very first story on the Palm.

Remarkably, it took a lot less time to adjust to this new way of reading than I would have thought. My first reaction was, 'There's just not enough on a page'. And really, with only about 100 words displayed per screen, it seemed like that instinct would soon be validated. But you know, I got used to it very quickly. A simple press on the scroll-down button, and the next 100 words appear: as easy as the flip of a page.

The Palm's back-light feature made reading in bed a treat -- nothing like reading a ghost story in a darkened room, bathed only in the eerie blue-green light of a Palm III! Oooooh, kids! Scaaaary. But seriously, it was enjoyably serene reading in darkness. So the eBook passes the reading-in-bed test.

Looking for some lighter reading, I used the brilliant AvantGo service to download the latest issue of salon.com to my Palm. Perfect bathroom reading. Although I must admit I had anxious flashes of what would happen should my new-found eBook find its way into the bowl. Now that'd be really scary! But more or less, the reading-in-the-bathroom test was *ahem* passed.

But there's *no way* I'd ever consider bringing an eBook into the final frontier of reading and relaxation -- the bathtub. And until there's a waterproof 'sports' version of the Palm -- or any other eBook device, for that matter -- would-be eReaders are left high and dry. So points off for that.

And, of course, there's no eBook that can compete with its paper ancestor for sheer aesthetics. While I didn't *miss* turning pages per se, there's no way you're going to replace the absolute beauty of my Bloomsbury Classic edition of Jeanette Winterson's 'The Passion' with an electronic version. Absolutely no way. But in the eBook's favour, think of all the trees we'll save by reading Stephen King, Jackie Collins and other popular fiction in electronic form. There's no reason to keep a Tom Clancy novel around once it's been read. It's not an 'object' in the same realm as my copy of 'The Passion'.

Selection is also an arena where the eBook pales in comparison to the book. Right now, it's not like you can find your fave novel in digital form alongside its paperback version on amazon.com. Online bookstores like amazon are just starting to carry eBook, and dedicated e-bookstores offer titles in the hundreds, rather than in the thousands. And the prices are pretty much in line with their printed counterparts (an electronic copy of Chris Gore's 'The 50 Best Films Never Made' cost me pretty much the same as the paperback would have). Not the huge savings one might imagine.

However, there *are* free resources of electronic texts, like the Gutenberg Project, where you can download plain ASCII versions of public domain texts, ranging from Shakespeare's sonnets to Sherlock Holmes to the Human Genome Project. Once downloaded, text files can be converted into the 'doc' format readable on the Palm (check out the software archives at pilotgear.org for free 'doc' readers and conversion utilities).

Obviously the eBook is in its infancy, but it's becoming more and more difficult to dismiss as a pipe dream or fad. Who knows what the eBook of the future might be, but as long as you can safely bring it into the tub, sign me up for the eBook-of-the-month club!