Print books and e-books and where on earth does the time go

I stumbled across a really interesting infographic the other day:

http://ebookfriendly.com/2012/12/05/ebooks-print-books-coexist-infographic/ 

Well, it’s interesting if you like data and pictures. Luckily I like both of those things. 

It’s about print books and e-readers (a subject that I wrote about what seems like a little while ago but which I now realise was over a flippin’ year ago hang on that can’t be right my giddy aunt where on earth does the time go?). It’s focused on the US, which is understandable as it’s currently the largest book and e-book market, but I’d be surprised if the trends weren’t at least broadly equivalent across most developed countries. Certainly countries that have an Amazon store.

I think that the most interesting stats are:

• 1 in 6 Americans uses an e-reader
• People who read e-books read more (both e-books and print books) than people who don’t read e-books
• Reading an e-reader is slower than reading print
• Everyone still reads print books so just shut up about it OK

I think the conclusion – that print and e-books are both good, but will probably end up being used for different purposes and in different situations – is broadly what I came up with when I wrote my post over a flippin’ year ago, so it’s reassuring to see that my fuzzy, largely baseless meanderings are more or less borne out by cold, hard, dispassionate statistical evidence.