It's an interesting sketch of how you see things to be changing.
If the middle-man is removed from writing, there is likely to follow a much closer relationship - and much more discussion - between author and readers. In some ways this is a good thing; but when I think of my all time favourite books, the majority seem to have been written by authors who had very singular views of the world, gloriously unadulterated by the demands of the market/fans.
If you take the idea of the reader demanding a 'personalized experience' far enough, you might imagine a stage where the author offers several different plot branches on their web-site for fans to choose their preferred path. But surely the pleasure of reading fiction is to see another (hopefully exceptional) person's view of the world. It's about empathy, be that pleasurable or uncomfortable.
A real advantage of an ereader for me is that it removes a layer of pre-judgement from texts. I can download a spooky anecdote from a website, and read it in the same packaging as a Penguin anthology of ghost stories. I can write my own short story and it is immediately 'packaged' to be read in the same medium as that of any print-published author's. This is a good way of personalising choice for the reader. He or she is free to choose whose recommendations to listen to; potentially free of the judgements of agents and publishers of which are 'quality' texts and which are not.
Foyles was a great bookshop. I think if there were more like that still in existence, I would have far more qualms about switching to e-books. The only one of similar quality (but smaller) I can think of anywhere near me is,
http://www.jabberwockbooks.co.uk/. The chains are more sterile by far than visiting a website.
