Options for how to give books as holiday presents go beyond picking between hardbacks, paperbacks and audio formats. More readers of all ages have discovered the practical convenience of holding a slim, light digital-reader -- itself a popular gift item. In fact, a new Nook e-reader from Barnes & Noble is sold out until mid-January -- leaving this year's updated, enlarged Kindle DX at the top of a category Amazon has led since its original model emerged a month before Christmas 2007. Another big company, Sony, introduced two e-readers last summer, as shown on the video roundup below.

Digital books also can be read via the iPhone, iPod touch and PCs, as well as on smaller manufacturers' models such as iRex iLiad, CyBook and the Hanlin e-Reader. All this is changing the book market, including textbook publishing, and will affect magazines next. Amazon offers more than 350,000 books in electronic format and is "adding thousands of titles every week," chief executive Jeff Bezos says.
Education publishers also are moving to a handier format, spurred by dual-screen readers that flip open to show text on one side and color illustrations, science animations or other graphics alongside on a liquid-crystal display (LCD) screen.

Another advance comes from five major magazine publishing groups that formed a joint venture to develop e-reader "tablet" editions. Next-generation electronic magazines, expected to appear in 2011-12, will have a page-like look and feel -- with touch-and-drag features like an iPhone. They'll have interactive capabilities that allow content updates and user-determined formatting. Print publishers know they need "a digital do-over for the next decade," says media technology blogger Ken Doctor of California. "They intend to establish a new business model itself for their digital products."
In a related step from pages to pixels, Atlantic magazine just began selling new short stories by well-known and emerging authors as $3.99 Kindle exclusives.

Journalist says: "One of my favorite tech gadget niches this year is e-readers, electronic book-reading devices. They make great gifts for students, professionals on the go and any avid reader." -- Daniel Vasquez, South Florida Sun-Sentinel columnist

Amazon CEO says: "It won't be too long before we're selling more electronic books than we are physical books. It's astonishing." -- Jeff Bezos

Educator says: "It's wonderful not to have to lug those books around." -- Robert A. Destro, Catholic University of America law professor who has 13 texts on an e-reader