eBooks

[Mechanic]

Well it has finally happened. My wife, now 80, an avid reader of books and newspapers, has an electronic reader (eReader). Pat tells me it is as easy to read as a book and easier to hold, and the device remembers which page she was reading when she closed the book. Unfortunately for the print industry and book shops, it is hard times.  Australian book chains Borders, Angus & Robertson and the Whitcoulls chain of news agencies in New Zealand have been placed into voluntary administration.

Four hundred years of movable handset type, 100 years of hot metal typesetters. 30 years of electronic editing and page composition. ? years left for conventional newspapers and book printers.