2011 is the Year of the eBook

An editorial in the UK Observer claims:

Young and old are reading as never before. 2011, the year of the ebook, has become the summer of the Kindle.
On planes, trains and automobiles, we are witnessing a sea change in our reading habits unprecedented since Gutenberg.

...here at the Observer, we detect a trend in reading that's exposing the digital book to sand, soap and seduction.

Popular Kindle reading has reached a tipping point. The average UK shopper now spends £4 per month on ebooks and 53% of Kindle users say they are now reading more books than ever before.

Better still, grumpy bibliophiles are falling in love with the Kindle's sleek, reader-friendly lines, its lovely facsimile of the printed page and, yes, its literary chic.

Across the Atlantic, sales of the Kindle and its many rivals (especially the Nook and the i-Pad) have become a bonanza for publishers.

Ebook sales are nudging $1,000m, a 200% increase on 2009. In a dire domestic economy, American publishers are, for once, not moaning about sales figures. 

 Is this the death of the book?

Meanwhile, the future of the thing Caxton called the "boke" is, we believe, secure. Ebooks, now rapidly replacing mass-market editions, may have the paradoxical effect of sponsoring more and better hardback editions. 

As Umberto Eco put it recently: "The book is like the spoon, the hammer, the wheel. Once invented, it cannot be improved."

The Kindle, in fact, sends us back to Caxton. Today, everyone has to read. In order to read, you need a medium. Why not start with an e-reader?

Amazon Kindle 3 is PC Advisor's Gadget of the Year

the Amazon Kindle 3 beat the Apple iPad into second place by 80 votes to take the coveted Gadget of the Year crown.

With its sleek profile, scant 241g weight, high-contrast 6in greyscale display and built-in Wi-Fi, plus cut-price book deals, it proved a tempting £111 (or £152 for the 3G version) package.

iPad twice as popular as Kindle

As rival tablets bite the dust faster than Audley Harrison the battle for top mobile reading device is again set to be a battle between the Apple iPad 2 and Amazon’s Kindle 3. The iPad is still way out in front in terms of popular interest, but the Kindle is catching up.

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