Amazon.com…now sells more eBooks than books printed on paper.
“Customers are now choosing Kindle books more often than print books,” said Jeff Bezos, Amazon’s founder and chief executive, in a statement. “We had high hopes that this would happen eventually, but we never imagined it would happen this quickly — we’ve been selling print books for 15 years and Kindle books for less than four years…”
“This includes sales of hardcover and paperback books by Amazon where there is no Kindle edition,” the company said. “Free Kindle books are excluded and if included would make the number even higher.”
The success of eBooks isn’t limited to just Amazon and its Kindle. The entire industry is pushing more digital copies now, with eBook sales tripling over the last year.
Among the recent contributors to eBook sales for the Seattle-based retail giant is the newest, cheapest version of its Kindle — Kindle with Special Offers — which sells for $114 and has risen to be the company’s best selling eReader, Bezos said.
Unlike other Kindles, Kindle with Special Offers runs advertisements and digital coupons on the eReader’s display in a strip across the bottom of the home screen or as a screen saver when the device isn’t in use.
A few sources have published a breakout by category – but, most of those require a subscription. I did see a note that gave me a chuckle: the growth of e-readers surpasses print in every category Amazon sells – except books on religion. Got to get past that Gutenberg thing, folks.
Eideard 
I am a book lover..I love the feel of the pages..the smell of the ink..I love going to book signings and meeting my favorite authors…….need I say more….
That puts both of us in the “troglodyte” group. Some might even consider us to be “Luddites” although we aren’t against advancing technology.
I love books. I collect dictionaries, books filled with quotations and works of art. I love old books and new books!
If our readers are representative of anything [and I’m not certain we are] then there are a couple other possibilities for the phenomenon described:
Geeks, early adopters are reading more. +
Folks who like to have a number of books and magazines always handy – are adopting ereaders as a supplement to their usual reading. +
Companies selling both into the hard copy and digital markets are doing best. +
When I was younger I was an extremely avid reader. I found it a true joy. I watch my kid today and she seldom has the same joy in reading I experienced. Her joy seems to be the problem solving of her hand held games. Her interests in TV seem to be geared to intellectual entertainment such as CSI and Bones type shows; where there is a puzzle to solve.
I’m not worrying about her not reading for the joy as I did. It would appear that her interests are just more electronically slanted. I suspect more kids are reading less but using their brains to learn differently.