The Times starts off with a barely concealed prejudice, typical of the New York literati: “Writers are peeved at Amazon.” Are they? Which writers, exactly?

But, the article that follows can hardly be ignored. Amazon’s stock is dropping, after months of climbing, on fears that sheer ambition might be the only driving force at the internet giant.

There’s something to be said for a long-term investment strategy, but at some point shouldn’t the multibillion dollar company show a profit? Even a slim one?

At the same time, Apple is engaged in what looks more like mid-term investing, acquiring the BookLamp start-up and its Pandora-like “Book Genome” classification and suggestion system.

It looks like the ebook wars are really starting to get interesting.