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fjtorres has it right. People are reading a lot now, only they don't think of it as reading so much. However, between social media, news web sites, blogs and just general web site reading, there's a lot of reading going on even before we get into eBooks. The big trick for businesses, however, is monetizing that reading. People have stubbornly refused to pay for blogs and news sites (though Patreon has helped for some lucky few) and video content seems to be a lot more sticky than readable content in terms of getting those dollars.
B&N seems to have thought that doing the bare minimums would let them continue to compete against places like Amazon - sell books online, have customer reviews and release their own eReader. Amazon did a lot more than that and despite their insistence on ghettoizing a lot of the indie authors that are fueling the rise in eBook sales, they are kicking everyone's butt.
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