[zzzmarcus]

Here's an idea:

A touch screen bookshelf replacement. A large screen you could hang up as a virtual bookshelf with an interface similar to Delicious Monster / iBooks.

You could flip through your books and still see the cover art and enjoy browsing them in a size comparable to that of as a paper book.

Your kids could still see that books have "physical" presence in your house.

You could still show your books off to people visiting your house.

The shelf would also incorporate sharing. You could drag a book from your shelf to one of your devices shown as an icon on the screen or share it via an email address.

As a starting point you could have this an app for Google TV and Apple TV (when/if they open it to apps), but ideally it'd be touch screen.

[aberkowitz]

In every new medium is missing a few endearing qualities of its predecessor - qualities which can never be replicated no matter how hard you try.

[jerrell]

That's a nice idea!

To be honest though, my concern about bookcases is more about accessibility and DRM than it is about the physical and aesthetic value.

There is something special about physically browsing shelves, but what really worries me is that my collection of books will have no single 'library' containing them in 20 years - whether physical or electronic.