Electronic Books & Printed Books: Conflict and Opportunity

I love books, just like Jeff Atwood, who compares electronic books with their age-old printed counterparts, concluding that

…unless the publishers are willing to treat eBooks with the same respect and care that they give to their printed books – and most importantly of all, adjust their pricing to reflect the brave new economy of bits, and not an antiquated economy of atoms – they’re destined to eventually suffer the same fate as the Encyclopedia Britannica.

via Coding Horror: Books: Bits vs. Atoms.

I’ve been repeatedly disappointed by the clear lack of attention paid to e-books' layout and typography. Amazon has let me down repeatedly. O’Reilly is better, because they create both the print and electronic formats. Amazon doesn’t. Until Amazon gets it right, I’ll stick to my paper books, thank you very much.