Electronic Books and Non-Piracy

For the e-book shoppers who might be reading, Fictionwise is having a HUGE April Fool's Day sale. Or, kind of sale, as all e-books come with a 50% Micropay rebate. (That is, you pay by Paypal or credit card, and you get 50% back as credit.) As they also had a 30% rebate on all SF/F fiction in the month of March, I have spent an inadvisable chunk of change on e-books this month, but then again, more books in the future! (They also offer an automatic 5% rebate if you purchase books in the secure Palm eReader format, which. Well. I'm not crazy about DRM, but I don't plan on using any PDA or dedicated reader in the near future, and I'm sure there's way to break the locks, anyway. I prefer the eReader format anyway, and I suspect its note function would be better suited for academic reading than the versions offered by Adobe or Mobipocket.) E-books are dangerous for compulsive book-buyers because we don't have to think about how to juggle the armful of books while walking across the store to the cash register. Just, CLICK. Done! As far as I've browsed, most books fall into the $6-$8 range, though on occasion I've found titles that cost $12-$15, and some more than the regular hardcover price. To defray costs of piracy, I guess, though it does send a shock of cold water over impulse buyers such as myself. That is, I won't pirate e-books,* but I'll shuffle them off to my "maybe the library" list, where they will languish until I once again reside in an English-speaking country. *As there are many authors and aspiring authors on my f-list, whose attitudes range from Norrington-esque to Bootleg The Puppy, I feel I should clarify: I cherish free e-books, but I happily and joyfully pay for them, as well. When I get them for free, via promotional giveaway, I will pay for the sequels, in paper or e-format, or for whatever the author writes next. I will rec the author to anybody who asks. I will talk about the book if it inspires more than two thinky-thoughts. Also, I recommend everybody DL at least one of Cory Doctorow's novels (which are all offered free on his website), if only to read his relatively long prefaces WRT copyright and Creative Commons licensing. I should totally buy something of his in hardcover. Also, I should exit this footnote immediately. While I will never, ever, EVER abandon paper books, I can envision a future where my shelves largely feature graphic novels and cookbooks. The ones in the public rooms, I mean. My bedroom's shelves will still be stuffed with dogeared copies of Good Omens, the Dark is Rising sequence, and Robin McKinley's early works. My family home currently has bookshelves in every room but the bathrooms, the kitchen, and my brother's room. (My brother keeps his books on a pile on his dresser, IIRC.) There are books in the hallway cabinets. Half of the shelves in the garage are for books. I even have some boxes in the toolshed. (Three out of four of my grandparents were professors. When my father laments about being overrun, I remind him I have the weight of history and genetics on my side.) What I'm saying is, e-books might be the only thing that will prevent my home from becoming a giant bonfire one day. Yay, technology!