The only thing wacky about today is my work schedule, but I’m not going to bore you with all the little things I must do. Instead, many of you may know that there’s been a debate recently about the future of books. Will ebooks take over? Are print books here forever? Do they have a place in the future together? Is one better than the other?

Today on twitter, yes I broke down and joined twitter, I’ve seen several links that relate to this debate. Here they are should you feel inclined to read them.

http://charles-tan.blogspot.com/2009/07/feature-five-quick-points-on-print-vs.html

http://caridad.com/blog/2009/07/21/tuesday-tip-digital-publishing-and-your-writers-rights/

http://edittorrent.blogspot.com/2009/07/industry-notes.html

From Publisher’s Lunch – July 22, 2009
Bookselling: Target Is Timesworthy
Target’s ability to select and sell titles to its customers that may not be major bestsellers in traditional bookstores is the focus of an NYT feature, which says their Bookmarket club “has highlighted largely unknown writers.” Their picks are focused on trade paperback fiction, and include special designations such as a recent “Hand-Picked Titles From Emerging Authors.”

Among the successful picks, which can sell 50,000 to 150,000 copies at Target alone, have been Michelle Richmond’s The Year of Fog, Meg Waite Clayton’s The Wednesday Sisters, Lisa Genova’s Still Alice, Diane Chamberlain’s The Secret Life of CeeCee Wilkes, and Tatiana de Rosnay’s Sarah’s Key.

A company spokesperson says the focused book selection programs are designed to turn “Target core guests into regular Target book shoppers.” (Last year an NYT feature offered praise for the power of Costco and book buyer Pennie Clark Ianniciello’s “uncanny knack for leading customers to buy books, for molding their taste.” The article said “a forgotten older paperback, recommended and featured by the book buyer at Costco, can sell more copies in six weeks than it did in the last few years combined.” Today’s take is that “the other big-box retailers rely mostly on the biggest commercial books of the moment, though Costco does on occasion offer its own special picks of little-known authors.)

In other news, rumor has it that the Sony PRS 700 (an ereader) is to be discontinued. I haven’t seen confirmation or the source.