Reading is getting to be a battleground. First there is the continuing bickering over Google Books and did Google spread enough green love among book publishers, libraries and magazine/newspapers? Now there also is shaping up to be pretty serious brawl for e-Book device of choice. WSJ Marketwatch’s Therese Poletti has supplied a fight card among Amazon’s Kindle, Sony’s eReader, and Apple’s upcoming iTablet [plus one can’t dismiss some of the Netbooks to appear on the scene this Fall]. Everybody perceives the eBook market as conducive to the same dominance that Apple’s iPod+iTunes and iPhone + iAppstore have done to the music player and mobile smart phone categories – given Apple dominating market postions not just for the devices but also for the distribution of media and software associated with the devices. It certainly looks like both the the Electronics Gadget industry and serious segments of the Printed Word industry are loath to let Google or any Amazon or others get a stranglehold on either devices or the distribution of the printed word. <hr>Thus the prospects for Amazon are daunting. With so many players entering the eBook market with great electronics production and marketing savvy there can only be a bruising margin-eating brawl ahead. But Amazon may have cooked its golden goose – a Printed Word industry that heretofore has relinquished ever more sales transaction points and/or promotional influence to Amazon. If the battle over Google Books is an indication, the Printed Word industry is desperate and they will be looking for clawbacks. Oh recessionary times are well named – its backward looking to regain old opportunities squandered.