Madame Bovary may soon be selling readers her favorite fabric softener. Over the weekend, tech reporters pondered Amazon.com, Inc.'s patent application that builds the technological framework for putting advertisements in digital books.

Slashdot reports two patent applications; one for "On-Demand Generating E-Book Content with Advertising" and "Incorporating Advertising in On-Demand Generated Content." GalleyCat wrote about this kind of ad in the past, and two readers reminded us about book advertisements in history.

Here's an excerpt from one of the patents: "For instance, if a restaurant is described on page 12, [then the advertising page], either on page 11 or page 13, may include advertisements about restaurants, wine, food, etc., which are related to restaurants and dining." (Via BayNewser)