Who needs a bookshelf with important, leather-bound books when you have so many other trinkets to store on shelves? Ikea is taking note of the move toward e-books and has responded to the increasingly electronic world by redesigning its BILLY bookshelf as more of a just, you know, things-shelf.

The Economist points out the coming change to the BILLY shelf, due out next month, includes deeper shelves and glass doors. IKEA’s tinking — that tchotchkes and a few coffee-table books or other books not often read will be stored there.

The move toward all things digital for consumers has resulted in big sales for e-books as compared to hardbacks. Amazon now sells more e-books than physical paper ones, and that will speed up even more as chains like Borders shut down for good.

Sure, it’s nice to have a few thousand literary offerings in your hand by way of a slim e-reader, but will paper books eventually go away forever, confined to some-assembly-required prisons to gather dust? Let’s hope not.

The books business: Great digital expectations [The Economist]

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