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The concern about electronic devices has to do with takeoff and landing because of the proximity to the ground. No one is concerned about a momentary interruption of some electronic gadgetry in flight at cruise - it's not that anyone thinks your book is going to suddenly cause the airplane to just fall out of the sky or cause the engines to just suddenly quit. However, during takeoff and landing, especially landing during low visibility, the airplane is navigating using precise instruments at very tight tolerances for error - you are, after all, flying just a few hundred feet off the ground at 200+ kmh, and during low visibility conditions like fog or a low cloud cover, your pilots cannot see out the windows and are relying entirely on those instruments to keep you from slamming into the ground, thus ensuring you wouldn't be able to finish your book. An interruption there, even just a momentary one, could have unpleasant consequences. No one in the industry actually thinks your book or your iPod or whatever is really going to cause a problem, but since all electronic gadgetry produces an electromagnetic field, it's at least theoretically possible that not just yours, but dozens of devices all operating at once, could cause a problem. It's a "better safe than sorry" principle.
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