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Book reading is under stiff competition for peoples' time, especially from more interactive and media-rich distractions like TV and video games. However, it's not as if this competition only just began to heat up... in fact, books have been competing against video games for the past thirty years, against TV for the past seventy-five years, and against all sorts of other entertainments and activities for over two hundred years. The rise of the paperback is most likely attributed to this competition, an effort to make books more portable and affordable (for the consumer, as well as the publisher).
The development of the e-book is similarly a reaction to the realities of the times. As computers and electronic delivery systems become more ubiquitous, and as consumers demand more flexible options for content access, so e-books will rise to the occasion and provide that flexible electronic access. That will keep literature accessible to the consumer, improving its portability and affordability, and enhancing its flexibility.
Are books being read less? Sure... a lot of things are being done less, as there are more and more things to occupy peoples' time. But I do not believe that's an indication that the age of books is coming to an end, any more than it has over the past few hundred years. It just means that the book is going through another change in its development, one as significant as the transition from hand-written texts to press, and from big, expensive hardbacks to cheaper, portable paperbacks.
Books aren't ending, they're evolving. The next age of books will certainly be different... but hardly unrecognizable.
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