Progress is a strange thing, especially in today's world. Change comes more and more rapidly, each change bringing about greater and greater effects. At times, it seems that we are getting immune to this pace. What would have seemed like magic just several years ago becomes expected or worse, commonplace. Perhaps nowhere has this phenomenon been more evident than in the developing popularity of ebook readers, particularly Amazon's Kindle ebook reader.

The Kindle ebook reader is the granddaddy of all digital book readers. It was the first ebook reader to hit the market. The Kindle ebook reader is still the most popular digital book reader, with an estimated three million units sold. Also, the owners of the Kindle ebook reader have exclusive access to the stock of the world's largest bookseller - Amazon.com, Currently, Amazon offers over 500,000 ebook titles to people who own the Kindle ebook reader. That's more available titles than the next two most popular ebook readers combined. So, has all this changed us?

A device like the Kindle ebook reader comes along only once in awhile. The Kindle ebook reader is an example of a technological change that, in turn, causes social and commercial changes. Digital book readers, like the Kindle, are changing the way we read books, think about book and purchase books. So what's the big deal? The sale of ebooks is slowly catching up to the sale of print books. In fact, the sale of ebooks on Amazon alone has exceed the sale of print books on several occasions, most notably Christmas Day 2009.

When the sale of ebooks routinely exceeds the sale of print books (and they will), what will happen? Will book publishers give up selling print books altogether or will they simply put a premium on print books, making those who want them pay more? In that scenario, the sales of print books will shrink even more. If that occurs, will print books eventually become as rare as the LP record?