Death of the Book. Greatly Exaggerated?

Nicholas Carr – always good for reasoned argument on all things technology – suggests that reports on the (imminent) death of the printed book may be greatly exaggerated.

Elsewhere, though I can’t recall where, I read that sales of e-readers (single function devices) may be losing out to similarly convenient, but multi-function tablet devices.  This may muddy the argument somewhat but I’m intrigued by Carr’s suggestion that perhaps the market is beginning to assess the different formats’ applicability for different scenarios.  E-readers may be perfect for mass-market novels, less apt for text-books.  This particular argument would play well to one of Carr’s other recurrent themes, that learning and retention of information may be impeded by electronic formats.