After reading this TechCrunch article about Apple’s supposed cloud strategy, I started thinking about the Kindle, and how the book business is setting itself up for the same inflation that the record business went through in the 80s and 90s.

In one corner of my house, I have a huge library of books that I have accumulated. Unfortunately, my Kindle has gotten me out of the habit of reading traditional books. I would rather read the books in this collection that I haven’t gotten to yet on the Kindle, but Amazon seems prepared to follow the old model of making me re-buy the book.

Apple avoided this from the start with the iPods, letting users put whatever CD they wanted into iTunes and transfer it over. Is there a way to do this with books? I would even trade in the books that I haven’t read for a Kindle copy, and let Amazon re-sell it and take the cash.

A few problems I see with this:

1. There are more free books available than free music (primarily at libraries), and it could lead to a lot of analog-to-digital piracy if there isn’t a secure way of doing this.

2. There are probably a lot of Kindle users that want to keep a library at their homes for aesthetic purposes, or that just like the feel of a book every now and then.

Anyone out there that can read into this a little more?