Holiday Travel Made Easy

You've threatened to pull over and leave them on the side of the road if they ask, one more time, "Are we there yet?"

Heading over the river and through the woods to grandmother's house can be a nightmare if you have young children in the car. They need amusement, but counting silos grows old in short time. Thanks to the genius of Houghton Mifflin's David Langevin, those horrendous and endless journeys may be at an end.

Read to the wee babes, Mr. Langevin suggests, and his publishing house has just what you need. Ring up an e-book on your cell phone, and motoring becomes quality time as you read aloud. In a deal with Mobifusion, the book publisher now provides e-books that can be accessed by mobile, allowing the harried parent to amuse the little chislers while the miles slip by.

You yourself may wish to read, and if the trip is a long one, you can download War and Peace to your cell phone. Travel by car becomes more pleasant when you add in an amusement. No need to hit the book shop before you head off for holiday fun, not when you can punch in a few numbers and access Houghton Mifflin's e-book library.

Considering the size of the screen and the state of the average reader's eyes, it is debatable whether or not the mobile phone book will make a huge impact on sales. That, and the fact that reading will provide yet another distraction to the motorist, who really should be watching the road and minding the pedestrians. It's just a matter of time before more jurisdictions ban the use of cell phone e-books while driving.

Harlequin is getting in on the act as well, offering five hundred word bits of their steamy novels available in serial form. Imagine someone reading some of that while driving, and you'd be rushing to take public transportation to get where you're going.

Safer altogether if the downloaded e-book was in an audio format.