Are Print Books Going Away?

Back in June I noticed a ZDNet article about how e-books had outsold hardbound books for the first time. This shocked a lot of people. Personally, I didn't realize we'd be seeing that so soon, but the future is now. An interesting side note there is that it was the paperback books that really took a huge hit in sales thanks to ebooks. It seems there's still a market for quality cloth and hardcover books, even with e-books flooding the market. The reason for this is simple: people who buy paperbacks (trade and mass market) just want the content. People who buy hardbound want the full book experience.

In my senior year of college, I interned at a small, independent press in the heart of Boston called David R. Godine. Godine and other independent presses like them publish books for serious bibliophiles--not just people who love great literature, but also people who appreciate the craftsmanship of cloth binding, the feel of certain types of paper on your fingertips, and of course, that wonderful book smell. I have to imagine that no matter how well ebooks do, there will always be a market for hardcovers printed with that kind of care.

Fast forward to this month and I see a Wall Street Journal article about ebook and ereader sales slowing down. Are consumers being swayed back to more print books? At the very least, it seems readers are not abandoning "analog" books. According to the article, 59% of readers polled are still not interested in purchasing an ebook. Another telling stat from the article is that 90% of ebook readers continue to read paper books as well.

I strongly agree with the WSG article on mass market paperbacks--it seems that for many readers who enjoy genre fiction, ebooks will be replacing cheap paperbacks eventually. 

Do you read both? What makes you choose an ebook over a printed book, and vice versa?