Amazon UK: Kindle e-book sales surpass those of print books

Reading in Britain? Kindle like the 15th century, Amazon.co.uk said today, reporting that e-book sales have overtaken those of print editions, said BBC News. 

The UK's biggest book seller claimed the e-book sales herald a reading  "renaissance" in the region, the Guardian cited the company's statement as saying. 

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Indeed, it seems the old leather bound's says are numbered. One hundred and 14 e-books are downloaded for every 100 hardback and paperback books sold by Amazon UK, the Guardian said, citing unaudited company figures. And that's not including free e-books!

These digital readers appear to be voracious: the average Kindler buys as many as four times the number of books than before buying the gadget, said BBC. 

And what are they reading? Well, the company sold two million electronic editions of the crazy-popular novel "Fifty Shades of Grey" in only four months, according to BBC. 

But these tech-savvy readers are not limiting themselves to mere, well, reading. They're also publishing up the wazoo — Amazon UK cited a whopping 400 percent increase Kindle Direct Publishing in the last year, said BBC. 

And they're reading one another's self-published work. Three of top 10 most popular Kindle authors of the year came by way of Amazon's Kindle Direct Publishing, according to the BBC (hats off to authors Nick Spalding, Katia Lief and Kerry Wilkinson). 

Amazon manufactures the Kindle reader and launched the device in the UK in 2010, reported T3 Magazine.