Ebooks provide interesting alternative to printed word. (a feature)

In this increasingly technology-centric world of ours, you may have noticed an interesting thing. Friends, family, and relatives are spending more time on computers these days than ever before. Within the last couple of years, the amount of time spent vegging out in front of the television set has transferred over to surfing the web, logging onto Facebook.com, and playing games in your web browser.

However, how often have you seen your mom pour a cup of tea, sit down, and read the latest Oprah Book Club selection on her laptop?

For those not in the know, e-books are translations of best-selling novels meant to read on tablet PCs or laptops. Slightly less expensive than their paperback counterparts, e-books run the gamut from popular thriller novels such as Dan Brown’s The DaVinci Code to new age theory books such as The Secret, by Rhonda Byrne. Although the books themselves are meant for us with actual readers made by major manufacturers such as Sony, e-books come in a variety of formats than can be read on any computer.

Why, you ask, would you someone want to purchase digital translations of their favorite books? Well, for one thing it is far easier to carry around a library’s worth of literature on a small laptop or e-Reader than it is to haul them around. Also, e-books allow the reader to change the size of the text in case they have difficulty seeing small font. The nature of reading on a monitor also means never having to hold open a paperback, so it is more convenient.

However, there are still a great deal of limitations facing e-books. Many people would no doubt prefer having a physical copy of the book they just purchase as opposed to a file on their e-reader. Also, laptops and e-readers both obviously need power, which can be a big deal when one is on the go.

Then of course, there is the matter of price. If you already own a laptop, buying an e-book is certainly a viable option. The e-readers themselves, however, tend to be incredibly pricey.

Take for example the E-reader 6IN Portable Silver E-book Approx 170 Pix/inch, by Sony (seen above). It’s a really nice e-reader, which has a good battery life and can be held like a book. It goes for $299.99.

If you pick it up on Amazon.com, you can get a whopping savings of 99 cents!

Due to the high sales of laptops these days, e-books are beginning to gain momentum. In the past five years, the market for eBooks have grown considerably. In 2007 alone, e-book sales totaled over $31 million. When compared to 2006’s sale records, e-book sales have risen over 24% in the course of the year. While the remarkable growth of the industry doesn’t threaten the longevity of the printed word, it does reflect upon how invested into our laptops we have become.

If you would like to learn more about e-books, or would like to check out the wide selection available, check out E-books.com.