I just used Amazon to buy Eloquent Ruby. The estimated arrival date is about a week from now, but being in Hawaii, I’m prepared for it to take much longer. Upon placing the order, I noticed this message:

What a great idea. The main downside of ordering products from Amazon is that you have to wait for your physical product to arrive. But in this case, they’re able to minimize that inconvenience by allowing me to access the product digitally until my physical book arrives.

I elected not to buy the Kindle version of this book (or any reference or textbook) because diagrams and navigation on the Kindle are pretty clumsy, so it’s hard to quickly reference content. Print still very much has e-readers beat in this regard, but it’s definitely nice to be able to access the book digitally in the meantime. Amazon is doing a great job of thinking about the customer experience here. Rather than getting really excited about the product only to be disappointed when it sinks in that I have to wait, I’m offered a way to enjoy the content immediately, capitalizing on my current enthusiasm.