One thing I have noticed about ereaders (and owners of ereaders) is their willingness to purchase books. I have friends who before buying a nook or a kindle would read one or two medium sized books a year. Revenue for Amazon/B&N ~ $20 ($60 if they are both new release hardbacks). With the ereader the same person will have a "stack" of 13 to 14 books to read in their ereader. Revenue for Amazon ~ $130. This is not including the cost of ereader, but we can just skip that. Now, ereaders certainly make reader more accessible (you don't have to carry around a book with you), but changing mediums is not going to increase the amount you read by 700%.

Please don't misunderstand me on this, I actually really like ereaders. I think if you are a person that used to go on vacation with four heavy books in your luggage then they are great. I also really like a lot of the tech involved. The kindle's battery life is simply amazing.

The point is that I feel like the barrier to buying a book has been dramatically reduced. IMHO, this is why the bookstores are supporting and promoting them. With a physical book, you have to order it from the site or go to the store. You also have a physical book which can feel like 700 pages of procrastination staring you back in the face everyday that you don't read. Sure the bookworms out there really want you to like books and to actually read more, but bookstores are a business, and their business is _selling_ books.