Nostalgia for the weight of a hardcover and a fondness for the sweet must of old pages are not necessarily indicators of the biggest readers, a recent study shows. The Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project yesterday (April 4) published the results of a survey that found digital reading is up for everyone, and growing fast. After surveying 2,986 people from November to December of 2011, as well as in January and February, Pew found that in mid-December, 17 percent said they had read an e-book in the past year. By February, it was up to 21 percent. All the people who got e-book readers such as the Amazon Kindle as gifts around the holidays may have spurred this. And if you broaden the definitions to any long-form reading, such as magazine articles, and on devices other than e-readers, such as laptops, the numbers jump higher, to 43 percent of people ages 16 and older. (Pew doesn't survey younger people as often, as it is more difficult and more expensive.) The typical (median) e-book readers consumed 13 volumes in the past year, versus six for folks who read only in analog form.