Where's my Digital Copy?

Everyone knows about the digital copies that come with some DVD's and Blu-rays right? They're a copy of the movie that you can download for a limited time from the distribution company and install on whatever device you would like to be able to view the movie on. You get a physical copy of the movie to watch on your DVD or Blu-ray player and a digital copy to watch on your Ipod, smartphone, or whatever. Pretty neat right?

So.. why haven't we been given this option with books yet?

Publisher's Weekly ran an article last month about how E-books are pretty much outselling print forms of books. Earlier this year we also saw many of the Borders stores close their doors. As an avid reader and lover of paper books, this frightens me slightly. I recently bought a Nookcolor. I had been debating with myself for months about whether or not I should buy an eReader. Recently though, some authors and many new writers have been releasing their books or short stories in digital only. Sorta limits the options. It also takes the brick and mortar booksellers out of the equation, right? Maybe not. Some booksellers are starting to sell ebooks in their stores.

Seeing that publishers are allowing bookstores to sell ebooks makes me wonder why they couldn't allow them to bundle paper copies of books with a digital version. I would love to walk into my local bookstore with my ereader, buy my favorite new hardcover, and download a digital copy of it to my ereader, all at the same time. If they could give them to us for free with the purchase of the physical book, this would be ideal. Even if they had to charge a dollar or two, I'd still be happy. I am just not willing to pay $15-$20 for a new book and then have to pay another $10 for the option to read it on my Nook. This would also hopefully give people a good excuse to actually buy the print copy of the books and to buy them from their local bookstore, not Amazon.

This might just be a pipedream, but I really hope not.