It just so happens that I've encountered a couple of different technologies attempting to tackle the same topic, how we will read / enjoy books in the future. Obviously the way we consume books now isn't problematic in and of itself but with the proliferation of eReaders, iPhones, iPads, etc. etc. etc. there will be more stress to "improve" on the experience.

IDEO proposes three potential solutions in the above video - all integrating a social aspect of some sort into reading. Some of the interfaces seem a bit more complex than they should but there are some good ideas floating around in there. I think I'm mostly partial to the 'Coupland' proposition and the most opposed to the 'Alice' solution.. as it seems to take the best part of reading away, the solitude and escape aspect.

The people over at Copia are undertaking a similar approach to the social reading experience that you may have encountered with Readernaut, Shelfari or GoodReads but take it a step further and integrate themselves as a book reader. So you can read the book through their service and immediately annotate, bookmark and share portions of the book as you go. Personally, I like this more than transcribing portions of a book that I'm currently reading. Hopefully the launch of the product won't be constricted to just their eReaders but more a wide open web space that plays nice with as many devices as possible. Be sure to check their Demo video to see the site in action.. it's actually quite impressive.

Overall, I'm not convinced that reading needs to be "fixed" but I find these solutions to be intriguing to say the very least. If technology can find a way to get people (myself included) into reading more long form writings, I am all for whatever it takes.