Turning the page ... e-page, that is

Journalism and literature might have more in common than apparent at first thought.

And I’m not talking about both involving words and paper — or, more recently, words and a screen.

But as the newspaper industry declines, more and more news is available on the web.

And more and more novels are electronic now, too.

On Tuesday, Amazon announced that the “Kindle Million Club” had its first member.

Stieg Larsson, author of the Millennium Trilogy, which includes “The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo,” is the first author whose entire body of work has sold more than 1 million copies in the Kindle Store.

And according to Newsweek, Amazon sold 180 Kindle books for every 100 hardcover books in June. And this is just up from the 143 Kindle books to 100 hardcovers ratio for the previous three months, according to Newsweek.

So it looks like the format of reading, along with the format of journalism, is changing. And although change is hard, it might be a good thing.

Having multiple books all on one device makes it easy to travel. Gone will be the days of deciding how many books to pack for a trip or arriving at your destination only to realize that you would rather read a different book than the one — or six — you brought along.

And if you need certain books for research or class, you never have to worry about forgetting them because they are all together with your other reading. Sounds like an indecisive or forgetful reader’s dream.

Also, the device will always be the same size. It never changes. This means it can always be put in your backpack, purse or bag without worry of what you need to take out to make room for it. I know I’m guilty of not carrying around my current read because it’s simply too big to carry.

But if all my books were the same size, they’d become a staple similar to my keys or sunglasses, and I would spend a lot more time reading because a book would always be handy. I wouldn’t even have to worry about finishing it — another book would always be right there.

Another likeness literature has to journalism is while journalism has citizen bloggers, literature now has self-published authors.

According to Newsweek, Boyd Morrison’s “The Ark” was the first self-published Kindle book to be released by one of the six major book publishers when it became a hardcover novel in May.

Twenty-five publishers turned down the author, according to Newsweek, who said Morrison then uploaded it and two others to the Kindle Store more than a year ago. Sales were strong, and publishers started to notice.

So add another tally in the “win” column for electronic books. Not only do e-books provide publishing opportunities to new authors, they give readers even more options, increasing the chances that there is really something out there for everyone.

Now, there are drawbacks to this, I’m sure. But think of it this way: If there are more books out there, the competition will be greater — which means writers will compete more to write what you want to read, making reading even better for you.

And even though electronic books have these advantages, I don’t want to see the death of paperbacks and hardcovers. The smell of a new book or the crispness of the page can’t be replicated by electronics. And it’s not so easy to borrow or loan out books when they are attached to your whole collection.

But my hope is that print books and electronic books, much like my hope for print and web media, will become a symbiotic pairing.