Gareth Edwards: Is this the final chapter for the traditional book shop?

THE Epic of Gilgamesh is generally agreed to be the first proper work of literature, an epic poem from Mesopotamia predating 2000BC and telling a sweeping story of a questing king and his faithful servant battling gods and monsters.

In many ways it's a clash between "modern" humans and ancient gods. Ironic then that it is also, like most books today, available to download on to the Amazon Kindle, the electronic reading device that has done for literature what the iPod did for music, taking it out of the "analogue age" and giving it a shiny new life in the digital marketplace.

Sceptics out there - and there are plenty - scoff at the idea of books not being, well, books, and the Kindle does have some obvious drawbacks.

Books don't run out of batteries, for example, and most booksellers wouldn't come round to your house and take back the book they sold you just a few weeks earlier - unlike Amazon which in 2009 remotely deleted copies of George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four from all Kindle users due to a copyright problem.

While they allow voracious readers to take an entire library on holiday with them, to many they just don't hold the same aesthetic appeal, and, if you get stranded, Kindles are no good for making fires.

Despite such nit-picking the Kindle has enjoyed a meteoric rise to success. Since launching in 2007, the first electronic reader that didn't strain the eyes has become Amazon's biggest selling item - topping Harry Potter - and is now available as an app for other mobile devices.

Now sales of books for the electronic reader have topped paperback sales for the first time on Amazon in the US - 115 Kindle books for every 100 paperbacks.

The trend is expected to follow close behind in Britain, where the big-name traditional book sellers are already struggling.

Their recent woes have seen two of Edinburgh's biggest book shops shut down, most recently Waterstone's at the east end of Princes Street, which followed the earlier closure of Borders at Fort Kinnaird. At the same time, Amazon is planning a huge expansion of its operations in the Capital.

So, is the tide unstoppable? Could the unthinkable happen and bookshops go the way of the dinosaurs?

James Shaw, the book sales manager for the Edinburgh International Book Festival, acknowledges the rise of the ebook seems unstoppable, although he still sees a future for "physical" books.

"There's no denying ebooks are growing in popularity, and I think publishers have certainly changed their views about putting their product out in that format. So sales of ebooks will definitely continue to go up, as the hardware gets cheaper," he says.

"Book shops might need to change to reflect that, and offer downloads in store, but I think there will always be actual books.

"Giving a book to someone as a present, for example, is something special and expressive, and it just wouldn't be the same with an electronic copy."

They may offer more opportunities for instore downloads, but a bigger rethink may have to be on the cards. Only recently, the bookstore of the future was seen as somewhere that would offer a shopping "experience". Allowing you to browse through its vast stock, although not as vast as online clearly, in comfort, sitting in comfy chairs, perhaps sipping a coffee, while your young children entertain themselves in the play area.

That vision may not be dead, but the struggles of the Borders and Waterstone's book superstores in Edinburgh show that it does not offer a panacea to the traditional bookselling industries ills.

One theory is that many bookshops may become more specialist outlets, increasingly concentrating on niche and second-hand products. As a new generation of readers grows up used to ebooks as an unremarkable fact of life, the trend is likely to gather pace.

William Lytle, owner of second-hand bookshop Edinburgh Books, in the West Port, believes bookstores may one day be less of a mainstay of the high street, but is convinced they will never disappear altogether.

"It could be that book stores become like old record shops, where people go to get actual physical books, but I think there will always be a market for them," he says. "There are still a lot of people who wouldn't consider reading an ebook, and most readers love the feel and the texture of a real book, so there's no immediate danger."

Whatever happens to bookshops there's no reason to fear that books themselves will ever become obsolete.

While the Epic of Gilgamesh was the first ever work of literature, the first book ever published was the Gutenberg Bible, in 1455.

And that, for now, is still unavailable on the Kindle.

TURNING OVER A NEW LEAF

THE Kindle is the first mass-market ebook reader to achieve success, thanks in part to being developed by the world's largest bookseller, Amazon. Its use of "electronic ink" and "electronic paper" is also key to its popularity. Unlike earlier models which used pixels, leading to eye-strain, it gives users the feeling of reading an actual page.

Since launching in 2007 Amazon has sold an estimated eight million Kindles. Costing a little over 100, users can download books, magazines, newspapers and blogs, with prices cheaper than a paperback.