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IT has already taken over your photo albums and emptied your film canisters. It overwhelmed your music collection and flooded Goodwill with CD towers. It cancelled your newspaper subscription. (Sniff, tear.) And now, digital evangelicals believe technology is on the verge of supplanting those dusty, yellowed tomes that weigh three times more than an iPod and don’t even come with any cool free apps. Sales of electronic books jumped 68.4 per cent last year and skyrocketed 177 per cent to $96.6 million for the year through August, according to the Association of American Publishers. That’s not counting the millions downloaded for free at public libraries, where e-books are fast becoming one of the most popular features. And Amazon has said that its e-book reader, the Kindle, has become the best-selling product on its website. But despite the staggering growth, e-books remain just a sliver of the overall publishing industry, at 1.5 per cent of the $6.8 billion in sales this year—about on par with audiobooks. And some experts believe that the $200-plus price tag for e-book readers will keep the market from exploding the way MP3s did. This holiday season will be a crucial test of whether e-books can cross over from geeky novelty to mass-market must-have. Major retailers are pushing the format—and, of course, the gadgets they’ve developed to display it. Barnes & Noble unveiled its first electronic book reader last month, with access to all of the retailer’s titles and then some. Amazon and Sony, the two best-selling e-readers, have introduced new versions just in time to stuff your stocking. And this holiday, for the first time, Best Buy is devoting store space to educating shoppers about e-readers. All told, about 1.2 million e-readers are expected to be sold in the last three months of the year—roughly 40 per cent of the entire year’s stock. By the end of 2010, industry experts predict, 10 million people will be carrying e-readers. According to Bowker, the average price of an e-book this year is $8.30. The cost of a hardcover book—the most profitable format for publishers—is $14.55. The difference is particularly painful for publishers because e-book buyers tend to be readers who used to be hardcover buyers, says Kelly Gallagher, vice president of publishing services for Bowker. Book clubs and gadget geeks alike are buzzing about rumors that Apple is secretly developing a tablet-style device that combines an e-reader with other computing wizardry. An Apple spokeswoman did not respond to requests for information. But if the ubiquitous iPods and iPhones are yardsticks, an Apple e-reader could be the tipping point for digital books. Unless, of course, you are 40-something Hilton Henderson of Fairfax, Va., who cannot fathom any reason why he would ever choose to read a book on a screen. Call him old-fashioned. Call him a Luddite. Or, Henderson helpfully suggests, call him a romantic. A friend of his recently compared books to attractive women—glorious to behold!—and the comparison resonated with him. Reading an e-book, he says, is about as appealing to him as cybersex. Yes, he went there. "I prefer actually the experience, when reading a book, of using all my senses, like when I experience the world," Henderson says. "The touch of it, the feel of it, the scent of it." All good points. But Sony’s Haber argues that if it’s women you’re after, technology is man’s best friend. Pull out a book in a bar and you look lonely. But whip out a Sony Reader and watch the magic happen. "If you want to meet a girl," he says, "don’t get a dog, get a reader" — By arrangement with LA Times-Washington Post
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