After noting the news yesterday that e-book sales have dipped ten percent in the first five months of this year, I stumbled across this post on Good E-Reader, which indicates that e-books might be doing even worse than the numbers are letting on:

At Book Expo America last April, [e-book retailer] Kobo dived deep into global reading behavior and analyzed the data. They found that 60% of e-books that are purchased from their complete line of apps, e-readers, tablets and via the web are never opened. Interestingly, the more expensive the book was, the more likely the reader would at least start it.

Another tech firm found that "40 to 45% of e-books never get opened." Those numbers can't be sustainable; is there any other mass-market product (besides maybe condoms) where around half of all purchased items are never used?