[Antoninus]

This is a very misleading headline. Who is surprised that virtual book sales surpassed physical book sales on Christmas Day? Christmas Day has to be one of the slowest book-buying days of the year. And when one factors in the fact that some people got Kindles as gifts (not nearly as many as Amazon would have liked, btw) and were anxious to stock them up, it actually makes sense that virtual sales would be higher than physical sales for that single day.

But as someone who is in the industry, I can tell you for a fact that on most days, virtual sales account for less than 10% of all sales. And people in the industry have been telling us for about 15 years now that the book is dead.

When you hear such rhetoric, think of Mark Twain's famous quote.

[ken5050]

I wonder when the price of a Kindle will be more like that of a printer...which they virtually give away..in order to sell you toner..

[Milhous]

The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated - Mark Twain

My sluggish brain initially mashuped Twain and Fields

I would rather be living in Philadelphia.

until I kick started the old neurons. LOL.