Dominic Basulto believes that soon, you’ll be able to read books for free – although you’ll have to watch intermittent ads as you read them. Highlights include:

• Books could be a lucrative market for advertizers. In the middle of a romantic scene in the novel you might see a small popup for a sale at a local flower shop.
• While the ads might seem irritating, the result is that you could get your books for free – although they might be sponsored by some company when you buy it.
• The only reason we don’t see ads in actual paper books already is because there is no immediacy in advertizing. Books are read and re-read months and years from when they’re bought. Ads bought when the book was published would not be relevant when the reader would read them.
• However the rise of e-readers solves this problem. The ads would dynamically update based on when you’re reading the book.

Find out why authors won’t really oppose this move, and why books aren’t sacred over here.

Source: Big Think