I myself have bought over 100 hardcover books this year: Give and Take, to gift to people.

Children spending money on games no ebooks makes sense for the decline. 

And also no big hit like 50 Shades of Grey.

But mostly people are rediscovering that hardcovers make good gifts.

Mind you, hardcover books are still a tiny market compared with Internet advertising:

In August, U.S. book publishers sold nearly $110 million worth of hardcover books, up nearly 50% from August a year ago. Meanwhile, over the same month, ebook sales declined by nearly 3%. In fact, over the past half year, ebook sales have been in year-over-year decline.

No wonder Google wants to give books away for free. $110 million in a month is a rounding error to Google.

More on the trend:

"It is surprising because we think of 16-24s as being attached to their smartphones and digital devices, so it does shout out," said Luke Mitchell of Voxburner, which researched questions about buying and using content with 1,420 young adults.

Printed books emerged as the media most desired in material form, ahead of movies (48 percent), newspapers and magazines (47 percent), CDs (32 percent) and video games (31 percent), the survey found.

Survey respondents cited two major decision factors for preferring print over digital: value for money and an emotional connection to physical books.

Twenty-eight percent of those surveyed said e-books should be half their current price, while just 8 percent said they thought e-book pricing is appropriate.

Reasons given for a preference for physical versions included "I like to hold the product," "I am not restricted to a particular device," "I can easily share it," "I like the packaging" and "I can sell it when used."

http://www.upi.com/Science_News/Technology/2013/11/25/Survey-Young-adult-readers-still-prefer-the-printed-word-to-e-books/UPI-83071385421304/#ixzz2lidTXG6f