From PRI, Public Radio International and KCRW Santa Monica, this is To the Point.

The Kindle, the Nook, the iPad, the book.

Hello again, I'm Warren Alney, and this is To the Poet from Public Radio International.

The daily look at the issues Americans care about most.

The Internet and e-books

are taking over the reading market for better or worse, 10% this year, 20% next year, possibly a

majority by 2015. Barnes & Noble is up for sale. Borders is on the edge of collapse, although

independent bookstores might be able to capitalize. Screens require different brain functions

than pages.

So what will this mean for what we read, how we read,

and how coming generations learn to think?

Will e-books be linked to video, music, games, advertising?

Will printed books become luxury items while paperbacks disappear?

On reporter's notebook later on, the FCC rules on net neutrality.

First, here's the news.

Support for To the Point comes from subscribers of KCRW Santa Monica

and from the Public Radio International Program Fund,

whose contributors include the Ford Foundation

and the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.

To the point. Tis the season for electronic readers to be part of holiday shopping at Target, Best Buy, and Walmart.

What will that mean for bookstores, the publishing business, and the evolution of reading itself?

We'll hear some surprising answers today.

...