just wondering what people are thinking of Baen Books eBook versions of so many Classic RAH books...

I prefer paper books myself, but am generally in favor of anything that gets good books read. Ebooks appeal to a segment of readers.

My guess is that DRM technology might be needed for the hot new editions of books, but not usually for classic books. Most of Heinlein's better known works are so easily obtained at the library, after all.

Baen has the numbers to show that free reading material not only increases new book sales, it also spurs sales of a writer's entire backlist.

People who freak about DRM don't seem to understand that marketing an e-book usually gets you more tree-book sales as well.

I suppose that when one is devoted to buggies, them auto-thangs are just the tool of the devil.

well I could not seem to find it - found the list of free baen ebooks but no RAH there.... and I do have a kindle and use it a lot.

I love ebooks, but I have not yet committed to buying a reader. I have read them in the past via older PDAs and have already lost works that had DRM on them. It seems like the Kindle is close to what I'd like.

Well depending on your point of view they ARE a VERY easy way to spend even more money on books - if your biblioholicism comes even close to mind you will find that the option of scanning a list from the comfort of your favorite reading chair and just clicking for something you have never read (for 9.99) can be FAR too tempting - you do not even have to get up and go wander through the bookshelves searching for something that looks good that you have not read too recently - and it is VERY easy to spend WAY to much that way....

OTOH I probably never would have read Angela's Ashes if it was not for that, as well as a lot of others

I don't know anything about Baen ebooks specifically, but I am very pro-ebook, just for the convenience of being able to do search indexes of my literature.

This maybe isn't the venue for it, but I hate DRM. My opinion is that any book that can be read for free in a library should be available for free online. I don't condone internet piracy, but I do condone promotion of a more reasonable copyright law that allows for access to information, especially content that is out of print. Considering that essentially all Heinlein books are still in print, my point is moot here-- collecting a DRM-free digital library of Heinlein writing is considered to be illegal. It makes me sad that I can't afford to legally put his entire archives on my computer in searchable pdf format.