IT’S BEEN A good few days for the real book.

First Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg discovered them. The innovative tech pioneer launched a Book Club, and said of these innovative new content delivery systems:

“I’m excited for my reading challenge. I’ve found reading books very intellectually fulfilling. Books allow you to fully explore a topic and immerse yourself in a deeper way than most media today. I’m looking forward to shifting more of my media diet towards reading books.”

Hmm. Must check out these book things. We look forward to Zuckerberg discovering some other new products, including a sustainable fuel-operated heat delivery system called “fire” and an interactive audio content sharing system, currently in beta but known informally as “talking”.

Secondly, Waterstones reported that no one buys Kindles any more. A spokesman for the chain of loss-making 290 bookshops, which was bought in 2011 by a Russian billionaire, said that sales of Amazon’s much-hyped ebook reader has “disappeared to all intents and purposes.”

Physical book sales rose 5%, and this has put Waterstone’s MD James Daunt in bullish mood. He says he plans to open a further 15 shops in 2015. One city analyst said that “The rapid growth of ebook sales has quite dramatically slowed and there is some evidence that it has gone into reverse.”

How cheering. I remember writing in a column four years ago, that when asked about my ebook strategy, I would reply: “I am going to ignore it and hope it goes away.”

Turns out that was the right move all along. The ebook is a thing of great utility, but has no beauty. The great thing about the real book is that it can combine the two.

Huzzah for the book.

ENDS