On the way to the London Book Fair yesterday I was sitting opposite a chap on the tube who was reading using a Sony Reader, contained in a suitably snazzy leather case.
I immediately assumed he would be heading to the Book Fair too, but not so. He continued with his journey while I alighted at Earl's Court. It was a notable happening in being the first time I've seen someone reading using an e-reading device on public transport.
Once at the show, the whole topic of digital content and rights management was very much to the fore. I saw three iPads (two of them on the Pindar stand), and was informed there were something like seven at the show overall - this number would no doubt have been rather higher had various attendees travelling from America not been absent due to the ash-based travel lockdown.
Content management specialist Aptara had a full complement of e-readers on its booth, including the iPad, Sony Reader, Barnes & Noble Nook, Amazon Kindle and also the iPhone (my colleague Barney Cox tells me he frequently reads books on his).
The firm's Lindsay Macleod reckons the iPad "meets some people's expectations but not others, and the jury is still out on the reader experience".
Meanwhile, at the Pindar stand I was able to compare reading Winnie the Pooh with full colour illustrations on the iPad, against my comparatively rather dull old Kindle. Top tip for putative iPad purchasers: you'll need to carry a microfibre cloth with you at all times, the screen's ability to pick up fingerprint marks is on a par with that of a black glass coffee table from Argos.
Despite all the digital content focus physical books still dominated, and the range of formats and cover treatments on display made the link between print production and publishing creativity abundantly apparent.
Special mention must go to CPI, which produced a lovely little mock-paperback with blank pages, for use as a notebook: Writer's Block by Paige Turner, "every page is imbued with nothingness". The cover was produced using the firm's latest super matt laminate finish, which has extra tactile appeal, while the sell on the outside back cover provided a neat synopsis of its services. An excellent example of marketing one's services by putting an entirely appropriate promo into the hands of potential clients.
