Statistics for August book sales  released this week show that e-book sales are continuing to grow with a remarkable a 172.4% increase over August 2009.

According to the  AAP (Association of American Publishers), trade book sales (not including books for academic study) for the period of January-August 2010 had sales of $2.91 billion while eBook sales in the same period were $263 million.

Put another way,  e-books sales for the period comprise 9.03% of total consumer book sales and this is compared to 3.31 percent at the close of 2009.

In terms of annual increase the $263 million e-book sales for January-August 2010 compared to $89.8 million for January-August 2009, representing an overall increase of 193%.

For the month of August, e-book sales continued to grow with sales of $39.0 million.