With Apple's iAd venture off to a bumpy start, and iBook sales moving along slower than expected in the face of the Kindle's enormous popularity, Apple is considering a move that will either be embraced by publishers and consumers, or despised. According to The Wall Street Journal and CNET, Apple is seriously considering the insertion of iAds into the content available to consumers through the iBook Store. You read that right--the eBooks you paid good money for could soon come with advertising material as part of the package.

Just imagine: You're ten pages into a Richard Stark novel or the latest book from Stephen King. The protagonist just stumbled across a body. You're learning the details of the kill, the way the room looks, the nuances of the corpse. You turn the page, expecting more of the gruesome awesome that you love such authors for, but instead are confronted with an advertisement for dog treats. The mood of the story is broken, and the cadence of the work is lost.

So. Not. Cool.

Up until now, those of us who prefer to consume our movies, music and television shows via digital means such as on an iPod, iPad or even Apple TV have been able to do so without commercial interruption. All of this could come to an end should Apple's bid to insert iAds into the books we purchase from them prove successful.

Fortunately, for once, publishers are on the side of consumers on this one. Since the advent of electronic publishing on devices such as the Kindle, publishing houses have been reluctant to allow the insertion advertising content into their wares, as they felt that such a move would detract from the product they were offering--a product that had already lost much of its original allure and profitability in making the leap from the physical realm of the bookstore to a form factor ruled by batches of ones and zeroes. That said, from a business standpoint, the publishers may not have much of a choice. One of the draws of e-books for consumers, aside from portability, is their considerably lower price point when stacked up against their hardcopy cousins. That lower price point has always meant less revenue for publishing houses. By placing advertising amidst the pages of their books, the publishers could stand to regain some of the revenue they'd once enjoyed. From a business point of view, it makes perfect sense. Artistically, however, such a proposal would be anathema.

While The Wall Street Journal sees the advent of iAds in iBook Store content as inevitable, Apple has yet to provide a statement of their plans. Should Cupertino be sweet on the idea, you can certainly expect that other electronic bookstores, such as Kindle and Barnes & Noble, would follow suit in a similar fashion as well.

In the meantime, let's hope that Steve Jobs is an avid reader, and as a lover of books understands what a travesty this would be.