The New York Times

Year-to-date sales of U.S. trade e-books sold through wholesale channels show an increase of more than 204 percent over sales through June 2009.

Publishers and media types often fall victim to a herd mentality, in which one and all jump on the latest bandwagon, the latest "hot topic."

As reported in The New York Times last week, a major publisher (Little, Brown) is taking its first title directly to e-book … no print version. It’s a book about immigration by Pete Hamill.

62.4 million Estimated number of avid book readers—those who read five or more hours per week—ages 18 years or older in the United States, or about 28 percent of the 18-plus U.S. population. Avid readers purchase 10-plus books per year; 63 percent of them are women.

As you probably know, The New York Times posted an online discussion
about the cost of college textbooks. They posted short articles by people from various aspects of the issue and allowed for comments by readers.

Not long ago, The New York Times ran a piece on IBM’s Watson. Watson is their latest version of an artificial intelligence machine.

Hachette Book Group announced today that #1 bestselling author James Patterson has broken yet another record—this time with tremendous ebook sales. To date, Patterson has sold 1,141,273 ebook units, making him the first novelist ever to surpass the 1,000,000 mark.

Two recent articles reflect a couple aspects of reality that I see about e-readers: The dust has not settled yet, and the single, catch-all solution that many would like to grab onto may never exist … nor should it.

One is an article in BusinessWeek about how the Kindle has not wowed college students. This is the part where I trot out my sarcasm and say, “Gee, ya think?”

SEATTLE, June 21, 2010 (BUSINESS WIRE)—Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) today announced that Amazon Kindle, the best e-reader on the market, is now only $189, down from $259. Kindle is the 3G wireless portable reader that allows you to think of a book and be reading in 60 seconds, from wherever you happen to be.

June 8, 2010, Arlington, VA – A panel of America’s foremost children’s authors, illustrators and content experts will serve as final judges in the PBS KIDS GO! Writers Contest, a national-local contest designed to promote the advancement of children’s reading skills through hands-on, active learning. The Contest, sponsored by PBS KIDS GO! and WNED-TV Buffalo/Toronto, encourages children in grades K-3 in communities across the country to celebrate the power of creating stories and illustrations by submitting their original work.