Emma Donoghue

I like to read in motion. Not just the kind of journey you might expect - a long train ride, through green and yellow fields, with a grande latte and a table to lean on - but also the shabbier, jerkier kind, such as going three stops on the London Tube. I'll read standing up, clinging to a strap with one hand, or perched on one of those too-narrow-to-sleep-on ledges in a bus shelter in the rain. I specialize in seizing even the briefest opportunities for reading.

Sales of ebook novels quadrupled last year, almost making up for the sharp decline in sales of old-fashioned physical books, new figures from the book industry show.

In a sign of how Britons reading habits are changing, the Publishers Association said that sales of electronic novels hit £70 million in 2011, up from just £16 million in 2010.

The sales increase of £54 million almost entirely made up for the £57 million decline in sales of traditional paperback novels.

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