A couple years ago (7/07) I wrote:

I think the digital book will be dramatically different from the 1999 eBook.  The hardware will be much more appealing to book worms - possibly with digital pages that actually flip - and the fonts and rendering technology will be wondrous.  The dedicated device will be connected to the net for instant download (via an iTunes-like store, probably provided by Amazon.com and B&N) of new books, magazines, newspapers, and other types of content.

Digital Books and the Trade-in Model

In other words, I had a vision of the Amazon Kindle – and as I typed this up, they were working on it (pretty cool).  I also wrote that I wanted to replace all existing paper books with digital books in the year 2012.  But I’m thinking of moving that up by a few years now that I have about 40 new books on shelves that I didn’t have back in 2007.  Books are starting to overwhelm our living space (just like CDs did for years) and it’s time for me to do something about it short of adding more square footage.  So here’s my plan:

1. Remove all books from my public Amazon wishlist and move them to a private “Want to read” list.  Having received close to 20 books for Christmas this year, I think I need to get serious about this.  I’m walking distance to the Microsoft Library and can get books delivered to my office whenever I want them, so owning books is starting to feel a little silly.  Where it makes sense, I will replace the physical book with the Kindle version once that’s possible.
2. As I read books I already own, I will take searchable notes (in OneNote) where applicable.  Not going to do that for Twilight or Tom Clancy of course, but I’ll definitely be doing it for psychology/business motivation/productivity books where things I want to remember are covered in detail.
3. Once finished, I’ll add those books to another list, “Books I’ve read” just in case I want to refer back to them at some point (or just remind myself that I actually read them).  This will address the packrat need in me.
4. Then, I’ll sell the book.  De-clutter.

If I ever need to refer back to the book for some reason, I’ll either get it delivered from the library, listen to the Audible version, or buy the cheaper Kindle copy.  This assumes two things:

• I get a Kindle.  In order to go digital, I need a great reader.  I’m assuming that the new Kindle on February 9th will be one.  The DRM still bugs me but if over time enough people complain, they’ll have to do what Apple just did with iTunes and let people strip the DRM.
• I can sell books without dealing with selling the books. I have a used book store around the corner from me, but the best value I’ll get from selling books will come from Amazon or another online retailer.  Except I really don’t want to deal with shipping books every day (or posting them to begin with).  So I need to find a cost-effective and efficient way to do this, possibly by hiring a virtual assistant.  Ideas are welcome.

And just for fun, I’m going to learn how to speed read finally so I can get through all of this a little quicker.  Most of the books I read are perfectly “speed readable”.  I’ve found some resources on this but I’ll spend some time over the next couple of days digging up some more.

So just like CDs and paper in our home, in a few years most books (with a few exceptions) will be replaced with digital versions or gone completely once I get the value extracted from them.

[Omar and I are giving a talk on Getting Things Done at Microsoft at TechReady next week.  The funny thing is that one of the benefits we tout of applying a system to your inbox and task list is that you start to systematize everything around you.  This is one odd example of me doing that!]