A long time ago, when I did a very different job, I used to interview Bill Gates from time to time. A decade or more ago, in New York I seem to recall, I got the chance to ask him whether he thought physical books were about to disappear, to be replaced by electronic ones.

His answer surprised me. No, BG insisted. The technology wasn’t there. Screens weren’t good enough. Battery life wasn’t long enough. People weren’t ready. But one day…

Now we have the Amazon Kindle e-book system, right - or at least, you do if you happen to live in the US. Is the era of the e-book finally here? Is book publishing about to be radically reshaped the way that the music industry has been by downloadable music? Is Kindle to books what iTunes is to CDs?

I don’t know. I live in the UK and Kindle isn’t available here, though it keeps getting rave reviews - here’s the latest from the Sunday Times. There are other, competing e-book systems too. Who, but a generous early adopter, would fork out the equivalent of £200 for a Kindle when it will doubtless be replaced - either by a better Kindle or a better system - within the year?

Well I can answer the last question: me. From what I’ve read Kindle seems very usable, in part because it’s a lot more than an e-book. The thing is hooked into the mobile phone data network in the US. Because of that it doesn’t need to talk to a computer to get stuff. And the stuff is much more than books - it’s newspapers and the web too. I like the idea of something that has a newspaper, a book, and my own work on it (you can upload from your computer) for reading too.

What I don’t feel is that this is the death of books. iTunes has wiped out CD sales because it is a complete replacement. E-books aren’t. People like browsing the shelves of book stores. I do it every time I’m at the airport. Would it be the same trying to browse Amazon on a little screen? Definitely not. I buy from Amazon when I know what I want, not when I’m just looking. So would I find a book I like on the store shelves then sit down and download it to my Kindle instead? Um, possibly. But I still feel this is going to be a supplement to book sales in the near-term, not a replacement.

What’s really interesting about Kindle for me as an author is its possibility for creative experimentation. Audible, which is now part of Amazon, paved the way for this with International Thrillerwriters through The Chopin Manuscript, the ground-breaking serial thriller in which I was one of fifteen authors. We are talking about a sequel to this highly popular experiment by the way - so stay tuned for news.

With Kindle, books could go back to being released as serials too, one chapter a week say. It could also be a great way to get back catalogue into print again. I’ve got several titles that are out of print in the UK, and I constantly get asked where people can find them (stock answers - Amazon second hand and eBay). It would be a lot easier if they were there electronically for purchase.

There are some big questions for the industry, though. If Amazon becomes the dominant player it will have a hell of a lot of clout, since it will effectively control the means to market of the publishing business. I can’t imagine publishers being too happy about that, or regulatory authorities for that matter. Somehow, somewhere along the line, there has to be competition, for everyone’s sake, including Amazon. Perhaps some open standard for e-books that can be bought and read on a variety of devices (this must, I guess, exist somewhere, but it’s a long time since I was a tech journalist so don’t ask me where).

But the bottom of line for me is that Kindle makes it easier to find and buy books. The sale in the US have been nothing short of astonishing - it is currently unavailable due to demand. Clearly lots of people feel the same way. I can’t wait to buy one here.