Yes, but so what? This still doesn't address the fact that buying at Amazon sends money out of Portland. Given the fact that bookstores in pdx are closing + local bookseller layoffs, it's even more difficult to justify paying $10 - $15 for an e-book, a PDF file with no resale/trade/lending value.

The minute Powells makes it as easy to buy a book for my iPad I will stop using iTunes and switch. I have no patience for booksellers living in the past. Their ebook selection is sadly lacking.

You can buy eBooks at Powells.com. Maybe that doesn't directly help the plight of Powell's brick-and-mortar stores, which are hurting because new book sales have dropped, but it is better than buying eBooks from Amazon, I'd argue. People are going to keep buying eBooks, so we should all probably just adjust the best we can.

I didn't see kiala's post when I wrote mine. Powells.com has lots of choices for the iPad. In addition to all the Google eBooks they offer, if you download the Bluefire app, you can read their Adobe editions on the iPad as well.

@geyser I've looked through their ebooks selection many times and they never seem to have anything I'm looking for.

Some publishers have been far more forward-looking in offering eBook options than others. I work for one that's been at the forefront, but I don't use eBooks personally. Do you think part of the issue is that Powells doesn't offer quite as many eBook choices as they should?

Some of my frustration regarding Powell's ebook offerings isn't even Powell's fault, as unfair as that is. Right now, the Kindle is the only ereader I have any interest in owning or curling up with—but since it's an Amazon device, I'm not able to use it to easily read Powell's-sold ebooks.

When it comes to my ebook purchases—which currently make up about half of the books I buy—I'm waiting, perhaps in vain, for an affordable ereader that looks and feels as good as the Kindle, but lets me buy and read books from wherever I want.

@Erik: Yeah, it's too bad that folks haven't "jailbroken" the kindle yet. I have no idea what that would entail, but I'm guessing it's not possible, since it hasn't been done yet (as far as I know).

Erik, I bought an e-reader from Office Depot for $99.00 that I can download e-books on from any place I choose to buy one. I have books from Borders, B & N and Baen on it right now. That said, it is far from the ideal e-reader (in my estimation) but it was cheap. I just looked at a Dell tablet from T-Mobile that is about a hundred bucks more, and as soon as work picks up I may buy one of those.

#8 rom -- it takes a few days after each software release to jail break it.

http://hackaday.com/2011/02/23/kindle-3-1-…