Amazon Kindle DX

Amazon recently released the Kindle DX, the larger sibling to the original Kindle. With more screen space, the DX aims to take over print textbooks and newspaper-size publications.

I was thinking it would be pretty wonderful if the US Government got in on this project and started funding digitization of the public library system, or simply paid Google Books to do it. You could then have access to the entire contents of all of the library system's holdings (including rare texts, manuscripts, etc.) from anywhere. This would be incredible! I would even pay a decent amount of money to be a member of a library to fund this service. I am sure publishers would bitch and moan about getting the shaft, but they could then cut out the need for hard copy production. The biggest hurdle for libraries is to get off your butt and go to them, and then to hunt around for whatever it is you are looking for. Yes, browsing the stacks is fun in itself, but who has time for that except college students?

I am skeptical of the current state of e-books and e-readers, but if it ever was offered to be able to read EVERYTHING through a subscription-based service, I would absolutely get behind it. I hope someone is already working on this one. Imagine having the entire El Croquis library in your bag?