Book retailer Waterstones has made a striking move to embrace their main competition and sell Amazon Kindle e-readers in their stores.
The new agreement will see Waterstones staff embrace digital book fans in store. Those who prefer e-books to the dead tree option will get the same help and advice as expected from a traditional book store.
E-reading hubs will be added to stores this year, with dedicated digital areas, free wi-fi access and new coffee shops.
The move puts paid to rumours that Waterstones would introduce the Nook e-reader, much as WH Smith has chosen to sell the Kobo e-reader.
James Daunt, managing director of Waterstones, said in a statement: "At Waterstones, we are committed to improving our bookshops quite radically to offer the best possible book buying experience. It is a truly exciting prospect to harness also the respective strengths of Waterstones and Amazon to provide a dramatically better digital reading experience for our customers."
"The best digital readers, the Kindle family, will be married to the singular pleasures of browsing a curated bookshop. With the combination of our talents we can offer the exceptional customer proposition to which we both aspire."
Jeff Bezos, Amazon.com Founder and CEO, said: "Waterstones is the premier high street bookseller and is passionate about books and readers - a dedication that we share deeply. We could never hope for a better partner to bring together digital reading and the physical bookstore."
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