Web Site Has a Read on Digital Book Sales

Scribd is proposing to do for books what iTunes did for music — let readers buy only what they want to read.

Eight years ago, Apple turned the music industry upside-down when it launched iTunes, an online music store that let listeners cherry-pick one or two songs instead of having to buy an entire album. Now Scribd is giving readers the option of buying content, including paying a few dollars for a chapter or two from a travel guide or a how-to book.