Introduction
Amazon's Kindle 2 digital book reader can store hundreds of
books and read text aloud. Like the electronic Sony Reader, the Kindle features
glare-free text easier on the eyes than a computer screen. (Reuters/Mike Segar)
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The migration of books to electronic screens has been
accelerating with the introduction of mobile reading on Kindles, iPhones and
Sony Readers and the growing power of Google's Book Search engine. Even the
book's form is mutating as innovators experiment with adding video, sound and
computer graphics to text. Some fear a loss of literary writing and reading,
others of the world's storehouse of knowledge if it all goes digital. A recent
settlement among Google, authors and publishers would make more out-of-print
books accessible online, but some worry about putting such a vast trove of
literature into the hands of a private company. So far, barely 1 percent of
books sold in the United States are electronic. Still, the economically
strapped publishing industry is under pressure to do more marketing and
publishing online as younger, screen-oriented readers replace today's core
buyers — middle-aged women.
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