Reuters has a report on a poll conducted by Harris that seems to suggest that eReaders are doing good for books and reading but only amongst the already converted.

At present only 8% of the reading public in the US use an eReader of some sort, but among the 2,775 US adults in the survey 12%  said they were thinking of getting one in the next 12 months.

Owning an eReader also made people more likley to buy books. About 20% of eReader owners admitted to buying 21 or more books in the past year, which is double the rate for the general public. The best interpretation of these results is that avid book buyers also buy eReaders. However ebooks still only make up 3% of total book sales - but this is expected to quadruple in the next four years. 

The Harris poll results, can however be given a very different spin. The Reuters' account concludes:

For all their growing popularity, e-readers seem destined to remain popular mostly among the most avid bibliophiles. About three in five Americans questioned in the poll said they were not at all likely to buy an e-reader in the coming months.

So the popular image of the average guy sitting at the breakfast table reading the eNewspaper on his indispensable eReader - isn't going to happen anytime soon.  

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