E-readers are on the rise thanks to older readers
By John Timpane, Inquirer Staff Writer, Philadelphia Enquirer


 Ron Tarver / Staff Photographer
Faith Paulsen and her husband, Barton Sacks, read their Kindles at home in East Norriton. "Lightweight. Easy to use," she said.
 
To e- or not to e-?

That is the question facing millions of American book-lovers: Will you buy an e-reader to read books electronically? "Never!" cry those devoted to the physical book. "Already!" cry millions who own a Kindle, Nook, Sony Reader, iPad, Kobo, or other e-reader.

It's early yet, and the data are churny, but some see an unusual tech trend - led by mature users, 40 and above. And as in the non-e universe, women buy more books, men newspapers and magazines.

Electronic texts have existed since at least 1971, when Michael Hart began the Gutenberg Project - and you could read them, too, if you could work a multistory, several-ton machine called a computer. For decades, people have been talking about the portable e-reader, and its time may finally be here.

To be sure, as Kelly Gallagher, vice president of publishing services at R.R. Bowker, puts it, "We're still in a 1.0 world with e-books. Fully 50 percent of all downloaded books are still free - but the e-books market is finally starting to be substantial."

Sony debuted its Reader in 2006, and since then has sold 10 million e-books, according to Chris Smythe, director of the Reader Store at Sony. In November 2007 came Kindle by Amazon. About 1.5 million Kindles had sold as of December - and the world took note when Amazon said that on Christmas Day, it sold more e-books than physical books, for the first time.

Maria Hutchinson of Haddonfield writes via Facebook that her Barnes & Noble Nook is "easy to use. I get automatic updates that are easy to install. I use it all the time. I find the pricing to be about the same as a book." Faith Paulsen of East Norriton writes via Facebook: "I got a Kindle as a gift, liked it so much we bought one for my husband. Lightweight. Easy to use. Great for travel." Mat Kaplan of Long Beach, Calif., e-mails that he bought an Aluratek Libre for $100: "It came preloaded with 100 public-domain classics, so not a bad deal."
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