According to novelist and avid reader Naomi Alderman, it’s the latter. She predicts that the convenience delivered by the electronic form of the book will lead to a steep rise in its popularity amongst the UK market.
eBooks are enjoying an epiphany in the US, and have already seen tremendous market growth in Japan, which currently has an e-book market worth ¥10 billion. How will this translate in Britain?
New eReaders (dedicated hardware devices for the digestion of eBooks) are now popping up all over the place with Sony due to launch its Reader in the UK in conjunction with Waterstones shortly. This may well mark the beginning of a consumer market for eBooks.
Guardian tech columnist Vic Keegan is also a fan of the digital book revolution. He hails lovereading.co.uk as the up-and-coming “iTunes market for books”. I hope that it becomes as easy to download fiction as it is to download music…
Personally I am still not 100% convinced that I will be completely au fait with on-screen reading in time for this year’s summer holiday reads, but I agree with Naomi and Vic – I do think the eBook could really take off if the price of eReaders begins to come down…
Tags: digital books, eBooks, eReaders
