Publishing Perspectives reports that Apple will soon (within the month of January, reportedly) be offering 80,000 e-books for sale in their iBookstore from major publishers Kodansha, Kadokawa, Shogakukan, and the like.

Probably more or less the same books offered by Kobo and Amazon (it was only a few months ago when they had 50,000, and promising to offer more) but it’ll be interesting to see if they increase the number of books (and by books I mean novels, they seem to be doing okay with manga) that people would actually like to read. Whenever I do some browsing, it seems like 50,000 equals some slim pickings; then again, I’m not itching to read bestsellers and the like.

(Happy New Year! I humbly apologize for the vast emptiness that was November and December. I hope to work a little harder in 2013 to keep this site running and relevant.)