The founder of Waterstone’s is intent on repurchasing the bookseller if reports here and here are to be believed.
The UK retail book market is undergoing considerable change right now. The threats from online booksellers, and supermarket’s who sell books too, dedicated bookshops especially independents are in an increasingly difficult place.
I have always admired Waterstones as bookshops and would be eager to see ho they would evolve under the direction of their founder once again.
Those seriously interested in the direction of books and book publishing should check out the website of the Institute for the Future of the Book Project and their blog which is great!
It is really good to see some serious thought going into the process of figuring out where books need to go. Certainly it casts a better glance on the future than both the articles looked at already today.
Anyways check it out!
The Washington Post has an article talking up the prospects of e-readers and offering links to two of the main contenders the Sony e-reader and the iRex Technologies iliad.
According to the Post these new e-readers move:
beyond the functionality of an ordinary book, the reader can enlarge text for the visually challenged as well as provide features normally found in a laptop or tablet computer, such as wireless Internet access, memory card storage and text search.
It’s not a great piece and offers only the input of Random House on the publishers’ side of affairs. Nonetheless it’s worth taking a quick look at if only to see what mainstream media makes of e-readers.
To go with my post on Trends and Fads here is an interesting post from Steve Rubel!
