MIAMI (CBS4) – Are we nearing the end of the book as we know it?

This week, numbers show that for the first time, E-books outsold hardcover books in the first quarter of this year.

And it wasn’t even close.

The Association of American Publishers reports adult E-book sales soared more than 28% to $282 million, while adult hardbacks sold just under $230 million.

The silver lining for hardback lovers is that sales were up for them as well.

Real books aren’t going to disappear yet.  Paperbacks still sell more than E-books, but paperback sales have plunged and the gap is narrowing.

For booklovers, it’s the stuff of nightmares to think of a world without libraries or bookstores.

And there are millions out there who refuse to make the switch.  Blogger Perez Hilton amusingly wrote that he won’t until they come up with an iPad cover that smells like a new book.

I love that my house is full of bookshelves and a couple of thousand books.

But I’ve become part of the problem, now reading E-books far more than anything else.

They are the wave of the future, but I hope we don’t ever fully leave the past behind.