[ficbot]

My mother, who has responded to stepdad's burgeoning interest in ebook readers with a firm 'this does not interest me at all, not me, no sir, never never' says to me at dinner tonight:

'So, I heard? That over Christmas? Amazon sold more books for those...those thingies...than they did regular ones!'

Hear that everyone? MOM has heard about this. It's a sign the end is near, I'm telling you...

Fwiw, stepdad at least knew the Kindle by name and is thinking he wants one. HE has heard that Apple is coming out with one and he is waiting to see. The big barrier for people like him getting on the ebook train is that he may accept such new-fangled concepts as wireless content delivery without a fuss, but he is reluctant to plunk down cashola on a device from the internet that he can't go to a store and look at and touch. So Apple may ave an edge there is the rumoured tablet really turns out to be an ebook-type thing.