纸质的书本将成为历史?

Once upon a time, all books had pages and we only bought in stores. What a fairy tale! Today we read things called Kindles or Nooks, and books are downloaded anywhere, anytime. To see how much things have changed, just peer in the John McClure's front window as he runs his publishing company from a spare bedroom.

"This is actually a book we published Get the Job You Want in IT." He used to go to Borders, then saw the writing on the wall, and gave up his IT job to begin signalman publishing. So far he's published 200 electronic books and seen his business double each year.

"I think publishing is undergoing a huge change, not unlike the whole record industry with download-mode music." So is it the end of paper books?

McClure says "No!" Not even close.

"Just in the last three years, it's literally come to about this point where E-book sales are about on par with the paperback sales. "

"But you think paperbacks are going to go away completely."

"No, I think it is gonna level off somewhere in the middle."

Marketing research expert Britt Beemer agrees. He points out only 11 percent of consumers say they would buy an E-reader. "So we still have 90 percent Americans are still buy a book." Beemer says it would be wrong to think that Borders went bust because book stores are obsolete.

"You cann't look at Borders to be as a failure of the book industry. A book of Borders is a failure of retail concept."

So if Borders got it wrong, then B&L Books would seem to have got it right".

"This is romance, this is just regular romance."

Jan Packwood has 38,000 books and 4,000 loyal customers. Daughter Dina manages the place. "Well, we're here, we're here to stay."

So far, they've been around 24 years, and despite all the changes in the book business, their readers keep coming back. Packwood says their secret is something you just can't download.

"Customer service."

"Knowing your customers?"

"Yes. Being able to build rapport with them, knowing what they read, and also our customers go way back, as far as they've grown up in the store when they were children, their mother brought them in, and then they come back and bring their children, and it is sort of family-like."