We do everything with our iPods, from watching television shows to storing photos, so it isn’t that surprising that reading books on ’em might not be too far behind.

The blog engadget has reported that they’ve gotten word from “trustworthy insiders that Apple’s not satisfied merely vending Audible’s books-on-digital-audio solution” and that, in an effort to combat the forthcoming iRex iLiad and Sony PRS-500 Portable Reader, the company is jumping on the eBook bandwagon, as evidenced by the fact that “[a major publishing house] was just ordered to archive all their manuscripts — every single one — and send them over to Apple’s Cupertino HQ.”

Another trusted source let them in on the fact that “the next iPod will have a substantial amount of screen real estate (as we’d all suspected), as well as a book reading mode that pumps up the contrast and drops into monochrome for easy reading.” Plus, you’d get to keep the eBooks you bought — presumably through iTunes — forever.

All the better to keep the world’s noses stuck in yet another piece of technology, right? Ah, well — better they catch up on their James Joyce than watch yet another Desperate Housewives re-run.

Related links:
Check out the engadget posting here