what is the future of books and publishing?

When I'm not watching and reviewing movies, TV, and DVD, I support myself by working as an editor and copywriter, for such companies as Cosimo, which reprints classic works -- including many that rarely see the light of day in print, and if they do, often not in handsome editions. We also publish new books, typically of the kind that traditional publishers bypass because they're not the stuff of bestsellerdom, even though -- as with muckraking journalist Danny Schechter's Plunder: Investigating Our Economic Calamity and the Subprime Scandal, there's plenty of interest.

Anyway, the point here is not to toot Cosimo's horn but to highlight something I just posted at Cosimo's blog wondering about the future of "the book" and of publishing as a traditional industry. If you're at all in the least interested in such stuff, please check it out and comment over there, if you have something to say. I'm trying to jumpstart conversation over there...