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tirsales,
How many paper books that you bought 20 years ago do you still have - and read - today?
Frankly I don't give too hoots whether a book I buy now is still "readable" in 20 years time. I'm buying it to read NOW, not in 20 years.
Example: I've just bought several Agatha Christie books for US$3.82 each from Fictionwise. US$3.82 is the price of a cup of coffee - I don't regard it as a "lifetime investment". If I want to re-read "Murder on the Orient Express" in 20 years and my current Mobi book is not "readable" then, I'll go out and buy it again it. If I bought the paperback of the same book today (which would have been almost 4x the price of the eBook), the chances that I'd still have it in 20 years are close to zero. Even if I have to buy the e-Book three times, I'm still "in profit" compared to if I'd bought the paperback.
I'm afraid that I just don't understand this "if I pay for a book now I expect to be able to re-read it for the rest of my life" attitude. Paperbooks (especially cheap paperbacks) don't last a lifetime - why do you expect eBooks to?
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