Waterstones have today announced that they will begin selling Amazon's e-book reader, the Kindle.

The announcement has revealed that Waterstones' plan to release a rival to Amazon's best-seller have been scrapped, as the two join forces from this Autumn.

E-book sales are soaring, with more and more people converting to lightweight Kindles and other e-book devices in their thousands. The BBC reported earlier this month that sales had increased by 54% in 2011.

Waterstones Managing Director James Daunt said:
“The best digital readers, the Kindle family, will be married to the singular pleasures of browsing a curated bookshop. With the combination of our talents we can offer the exceptional customer proposition to which we both aspire.”

It seems that the British book sellers have decided that if you can't beat them join them. No doubt paper book lovers in the UK will be upset by this latest conversion to the e-book.