How about reading a book. . . on your phone?

News stories in recent days have reported on people who do. So I’m reading  Malcolm Gladwell’s “The Outliers” on my iPhone.  Call it a test of whether it’s practical to read an entire book on a screen that measures 3.5 inches corner to corner. (On the iPhone, you “turn the page” with a flick of your finger across the screen.)

First impressions: It’s not bad.  Given the choice, I’d take a book, but then a book won’t slip into my jeans pocket along with my phone, e-mail and 20 or 25 gigabytes of other stuff.

Later, I plan to try Amazon’s Kindle, the best-known wireless reading device. It has a six-inch display. Sony last week released its own wireless e-book reader, and others are likely to follow.

Most of my friends are adamant. They’ll take an old-fashioned book, thank you very much.

But a few say they like the Kindle. The digital version of a book is cheaper than the dead-tree product, they say, and the Kindle – total weight: 10.3 ounces – can hold up to 200 titles.

Try taking 200 books on your next summer vacation.

Note: The iPhone ap is free. The digital version of the book costs $9.99.

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