Is there time to read ten pages?

Random House has begun testing a new approach to selling books. It's virtually the same model that the recording industry has been using to sell songs. Don't want the entire CD of music? Then just buy one song and download it. Don't want to read an entire book, then buy just one chapter and download it. They're currently testing this new approach with the marketing book Made To Stick. Check it out here: http://www.springwise.com/media_publishing/selling_books_by_the_chapter/

Will it work? We'll have to wait and see. My guess is, yes, it probably will. I'm still amazed when I go into a supermarket and see 60-feet of shelving, seven feet high with nothing but cold cereal choices. Or how about a trip to Target to buy toothpaste? There must be more than 200 different formulations. I just want one that tastes good. When you consider the multitude of choices that the average consumer must make each day, choosing between a hardcover, a paperback, an e-book, or an e-chapter is not bad at all. Who knows, it may even help the millions of people who claim they, "don't have time to read", to rediscover the knowledge and adventure that can be found in one of our oldest and most neglected of pasttimes.