Henry Hagnäs

As the world's attention span continues to shrink, Amazon plans to introduce a breed of Kindle e-texts that are no longer than "a few chapters" of those hefty analog books that a few people still bother to read.

These "Kindle Singles" will have their own category in the Kindle ebook store, and they will be priced "much less" than old-fashioned lengthy books.

But Amazon doesn't want you to think that's dumbing-down world culture. "Today’s announcement is a call to serious writers, thinkers, scientists, business leaders, historians, politicians and publishers to join Amazon in making such works available to readers around the world," the company's press release reads.

Finally, I've been saying this in numerous book-reviews: There are tons of books that are far too long for their single, however bright, idea. I hope writers start using this and it becomes a popular medium!