eBooks: The Only Books?

Way back when the internet first learned to walk there was a famous aphorism encouraging it as it took each unsteady step: "Information wants to be free." Well, while the internet is not old by any stretch of the imagination, it is now upright, sturdy, and racing ahead, two legs strong and insisting: "Information wants to be on the internet!" The resounding boom of this proclamation initially caused other information-related industries--namely print media and publishing--to backpedal or just plain shake. Newspapers, luckily understanding the ramifications of the internet, quickly steadied their nerves and appeared online, first as supplements to their printed versions, then vice versa as their primary mode of distribution. Books, on the other hand, appeared slowly, initially at a crawl, but seemingly overnight are like the internet itself, already running. In increasing numbers, books are now digitized; i.e. becoming eBooks. Though industry numbers vary, some sources already place eBook sales at 35% of the overall total of yearly book sales. Book reviewers, likewise, increasingly shift their critical gaze away from traditional hardbound and soft-cover books to eBooks, which either appear solely in digital format, or as alternatives to their tangible world counterparts. And not only do eBook reviewers now regularly give resoundingly influential thumbs up or down to specific eBooks, but entire websites are available to review, catalogue and otherwise provide information on eBooks in an increasing number of categories. In fact, the breath of reading materials contained within an eBook's pages already exceeds traditional (and at present most sought after, and thus lucrative) self-help eBooks to encompass even literature's canon (formerly only found gold-leafed and leather-bound) from Homer to Shakespeare. Monster search engines, with Google