What does an eBookstore look like?

This week we got a press release from Barnes & Noble celebrating the launch of its eBookstore. The company tells us that with 700,000 available titles, its eBookstore is the world's largest. Currently, its wares can be read -- with the Barnes & Noble eReader -- on iPhones, BlackBerrys, PCs and Macs.

Though more platforms (Sony eReader, anyone?) are promised, chances are Amazon's proprietary Kindle won't be among them.

The challenge to blogger me is that I just can't picture an eBookstore. (Above: no picture). It's about titles and content, but not about layout or design. To represent the ebooks in its eBookstore, Barnes & Noble has rounded off the covers of print editions, so they're roughly the shape of an iPhone screen. Maybe this will be the long-term solution, but it seems like a hedge.

Because an eBookstore filled with ebooks should be something different, I think. Something that exists virtually, rendered as pixels and text. But there's nothing that comes to mind except words on a screen. And you're already looking at words on a screen.

Maybe it's a failure of imagination on my part. What do you think an eBookstore looks like?

-- Carolyn Kellogg

Comments

[Caleb J Ross]

Meida Bistro posted a quick snippet regarding what an eBookstore could possibly look like. I like it. Does it seem a better fit than traditional print bookstores, I don't know.

http://www.mediabistro.com/galleycat/bookselling/is_this_the_bookstore_of_tomorrow_122401.asp?c=rss

[Carolyn]

Caleb - yes, I'd seen that, but I'm not talking about a brick and mortar room with kiosks with screens.

Rather, I'd like to figure out what a true ebookstore might look like. You know, the virtual kind.