Readers warming to eReaders

The number of people who read books on hand-held devices is growing.E-book sales make up 9 percent of the American consumer book market. Through August, their sales were up 193 percent over a year ago, according to the Association of American Publishers. An estimated 4 million U.S. homes have an e-book reader such as Amazon's Kindle or Barnes & Noble's Nook, according to Forrester Research, which predicts sales of more than 29 million devices by 2015. n a Harris poll conducted in August, 8 percent of those surveyed said they have an e-reader; 12 percent were likely to buy one in the next six months.

It is the same story in the UK - Recently a poll in The Telegraph concluded that eBooks would overtake print books in the next five years. Steve Haber, president of Sony told the newspaper that the eBook market has now passed the point of no return. Haber said: "I have multiple meetings with publishers and tell them paradigm shifts happen. You can say fortunately or unfortunately you haven't had a paradigm shift in, what, hundreds of years."

There are many things to recommend the eBook: for a voracious reader, the ability to carry many titles is a real boon; for casual readers, and for students, the ability to electronically bookmark pages and annotate text holds huge appeal.The biggest obstacle the eBook faces is convincing people that a battery-powered gadget is better than the printed word, which, after all, has sufficed for the last 500 years. People have a peculiar attachment to the look, feel and smell of old books, a tactile experience that the metallic efficiency of ebook readers cannot hope to replicate.

After years of lurking in the literary wilderness, the eBook market has exploded with online retailer Amazon.com's digital volumes this past overtaking sales of their hardcover counterparts.

The increase in sales has come as Amazon slashes the price on its Kindle device amid heavy competition from Apple's multi-purpose iPad and eReaders from Sony and bookstore giant Barnes & Noble.