I am what is usually called a voracious reader. Every time I go into Borders, I leave with an armful of books. If the total is under $100, I consider myself lucky. I read philosophy, biography, history, current events, self help, metaphysics, popular science, language, travel, and pop culture. And fiction: mysteries, thrillers, science fiction, even an occasional western. But also Anne Tyler, Michael Cunningham, Tom Wolfe, and on and on.

There's something about books that makes them almost sacred. Writers pour hours of labor into manipulating words to create an impression, an image, a moment, and then to string those moments into a cohesive, mesmerizing whole. Somehow some—not all—writers put so much of themselves into a book you wonder how they can still be walking around with so little of themselves left.

I've always loved books. A books have a personality that's reflected in its weight, the texture of the paper, the typeface, the jacket. It's much more than just the words that make up the text. I even spent ten years selling books, which, contrary to my intuitive expectations, made me love them even more instead of losing respect for them. Those of us who grew up reading books frequently have a hard time adjusting to parts of this electronic age.

As you may know, I make my living from computers. I'm a programmer and sometime analyst, so I'm constantly manipulating these machines we love/hate. You'd think, as a computer professional, I'd be pretty comfortable with using these devices for most tasks. And in fact, I spend most of the day at a computer. I also keep my calendar and address book on a handheld organizer, a Palm, along with my to-do list, and various data I need regularly.

But try as I might, I'm just not comfortable using computers or handhelds for reading. That's why I am disappointed that Franklin cancelled out of our Main Meeting at the last minute. I was looking forward to a demonstration of their e-book, which is reputed to be one of the best on the market.

Reading on a computer is awkward, because you have to hold yourself in an upright position. And you can't really curl up with a laptop, either. I've tried reading books on my Palm, and it's both too small and too limited in font selection to make for a welcome reading experience. I'd like to see how an e-book works, if it would be attractive enough to make reading on one closer to a book.

In Neal Stephenson's brilliant and fascinating The Diamond Age, he envisions a form of electronic paper that feels like paper, but is updated wirelessly to show each day's news. When I first read the book, I thought it a delightful projection into the distant future of technology not yet discovered. Then I read that someone is actually working on a form of electronic paper. Last week I read about transistors so small their width is measured in atoms. And IBM has essentially demolished the limits on storage of data, squeezing gigabytes into ever smaller spaces. What does all of this have to do with Sacra Blue?

If you're reading this, you know we now only publish the newsletter in an electronic format. We made the change to e-publishing for economic reasons—we just can't afford the cost of publishing on paper for a membership of our current size. The decision was an agonizing one for just about everyone on the Steering Committee. We would all prefer a printed edition, for many of the same reasons I prefer a printed book to an electronic version.

When I was a book salesman, I sold paperback books to bookstores and wholesalers. In a good year, only 35% of the books shipped were destroyed because they didn't sell. I understand about 50% of all paperbacks printed now are eventually destroyed. If electronic publishing can be developed into something that offers the tangible look and feel we enjoy in printed material, not only will there be a cost savings, there will be a sizeable environmental savings. However, that wasn't a factor in our decision to change to this format; it was purely a question of money.

We chose the PDF format because we felt it was the closest we could come to a printed version, and because it would allow raeders to print their own copy of the magazine in a form that most closely approximates the original printed edition. For the time being, Sacra Blue will stay in this format. But the future looks promising.