The Ebook is Dead. Long Live the Ebook

Has the ebook had its day? If you’ve skimmed a newspaper over the past month you could be forgiven for thinking just that. “The physical book market is making a comeback after years of decline,” announced the Times, citing a rise in Christmas trading at Foyles. “Sales of books are eclipsing digital alternatives,” said the Telegraph, with the journalist William Langley explaining how his teenage son had discarded his Kindle.

A Guardian leader said the apparent demise of ebooks was “one of the rare examples where a groundbreaking technology ends up being supplanted by its predecessor”...