From: Sandy Thatcher <[log in to unmask]> Date: Fri, 6 Apr 2012 10:00:39 -0500 From what I hear, though, is that the kinds of books that are popular as e-books tend to be much more popular fiction than academic books, and sales of the latter have not yet reached the level for university presses (as a % of overall sales) that they have for trade fiction publishers. This is partly because devices like the Kindle do not handle complex textual material (tables, figures, equations, etc.) well. Sandy Thatcher > From: Jim O'Donnell <[log in to unmask]> > Date: Thu, 5 Apr 2012 21:10:10 -0400 > > Rise in E-Book Readership Is Good News for Reading Over All, Report Says > By Jennifer Howard > > More Americans are reading e-books than ever before, on more kinds of > devices, a new report from the Pew Research Center has found. That > news won't come as a shock, given the rapid spread of e-readers and > tablet computers and the rise of e-content. What might be a surprise, > though: The report contains good news for print lovers, too. Readers > of e-books like to read in all formats, they favor print books for > sharing and to read to children, and on average they read more books > over all than print-only readers do. "They're heavier readers. They're > more frequent readers," said Lee Rainie, director of the Pew Internet > & American Life Project, the group behind the report. "These devices > have allowed them to scratch that itch." The report, "The Rise of > e-Reading," analyzes findings from a survey of almost 3,000 people > nationwide in November and December 2011 , along with data from > follow-up surveys of about 2,000 people in January and February 2012. > Twenty-one percent of respondents reported, as of February 2012, that > they had read an e-book in the past year. That figure was up from 17 > per cent in December 2011, before the holiday surge in purchases of > e-readers and tablets. The average e-book reader said he or she had > read 24 books (electronic and print) in the past 12 months. Those who > didn't read e-books averaged 15 books over the same time period. > > <snip>