I was surprised to learn that .epub is kind of just HTML.
I have a bunch graphic design and web development experience from marketing and start-up work, but I've become increasingly suspicious that most of what I helped produce was profit for groups of people who are probably going to hoard and abuse their wealth and power.
Meanwhile, books have always felt like something pretty pure and wonderful. Sure, any medium can be twisted into ugly shapes. But books don't seem to have the same potential for distraction and manipulation as the more dynamic, real-time mediums we've all been so excited about for the past few decades.
The combination of an open standard format for publishing, a new generation of (mostly) distraction-free e-reader devices, and a rich public domain of incredible works of literature ripe for re-publishing has got me pretty excited.
I mean, if I'm being honest with myself I'll probably get distracted with something else in the next week or two... but it's been fun anyways!