Well, the time has come to close up shop for the holiday weekend. It’s been quite a shopping season, quite a year, and quite a launch for this blog.

This blogger would like to take a sec to thank everybody for reading eBookNewser in the past couple of weeks, and for tweeting and retweeting and following on Twitter. Thanks!

Looking forward to rounding up 2009 and starting 2010, and to making eBookNewser your one-stop source for eBook news. It’s been a big year for eBooks, and next year is going to be bigger.

As for the picture, this blogger is allergic to cats, but they seem to be the order of the day. Here’s a cute one from the Internet. Happy holidays!

Starting tomorrow, MediaBistro will host its first-ever two day eBook Summit, featuring panels and discussions about a wide array of topics to do with digital publishing. Speakers include Jane Friedman and Brendan Cahill of Open Road Media; Brandon Badger, product manager of Google Books; Neelan Choksi, CEO of Lexcycle, makers of Stanza; and Steve Haber of Sony. If you can’t make it to the event itself, you can follow the proceedings on Twitter using the hashtag #ebooksummit.

eBookNewser’s Jason Boog and Craig Morgan Teicher, along with GalleyCat’s Ron Hogan, will be there covering everything, and hoping to meet a few of you.

Along with following the action on Twitter, you can also tune in to live streams of all four Keynote speeches–by Jane Friedman, Katty Kay (of BBC World News America), Steve Haber, and Brandon Badger by click over to here. Schedule below:

Tuesday, December 15:
9:30 am Jane Friedman and Jeffrey Sharp, co-founders of Open Road Integrated Media
12:00 pm–Katty Kay, author of ‘Womenomics’ and Washington correspondent BBC World News America.
2:45 pm–Brandon Badger, product manager of Google Books.
Wednesday, December 16:
9:30 am–Steve Haber, president of Sony’s Digital Reading Business Division.

Welcome to eBookNewser, the thirteenth blog in the mediabistro.com network and GalleyCat’s digitally obsessed sibling. This site will cover eBooks, digital reading devices, publishing technology, smartphone reading applications, digital self-publishing, and the rapidly evolving future of digital publishing.

From the National Book Awards podium to meeting rooms in conglomerate publishing houses, the industry is very anxious about the future of books. As the digital reading increases over the next few years, publishers, authors, and readers need to reconcile these fears about the future. As we build the eBook Newser community, we hope to start a more productive conversation about the future of eBooks.

The blog is staffed by publishing journalist Craig Morgan Teicher and GalleyCat editor Jason Boog. You can follow the blog on our Twitter page as well. To subscribe to our daily newsletter, just enter your email address in the “eBookNewser in Your Inbox” link at the upper right-hand corner of the page. Feel free to email us your tips, suggestions, and thoughts–our digital door is always open. The company’s press release follows after the jump…

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This morning, this blogger was interviewed by Jason Boog and Matt Van Hoven for mediabistro.com’s Morning Media Menu podcast.

The three bloggers discussed plans for eBookNewser–including a focus on new eReaders and apps, indie presses, eBook deals–as well as the prospect of an Amazon.com retail store in London.

There was also some speculation as to whether we’ll one day be able to download fast food. Check it out.

About eBookNewser: mediabistro.com’s eBookNewser