
In 2009, Barnes & Noble introduced the Nook, and Sony linked with libraries via the Overdrive digital network to enable library patrons to borrow eBooks from their local library. In 2004 Sony released its Sony Librie e-reader and then its Sony Reader in 2006.Ģ007 changed the world of reading forever with Amazon’s launch of the Kindle eBook reader in the U.S. In 2000, the same year Blu-Ray discs were launched, Stephen King offered his novella Riding the Bullet as a digital-only computer-readable file, and two years later, Random House and HarperCollins started to sell digital versions of their publications.
Ebook meaning free#
offered the first 50 digital books on floppy disk.įast forward to 1998, and four important events happened: 1) the first dedicated eBook readers were launched: Rocket Ebook and Softbook 2) the first ISBN issued to an eBook was obtained 3) US Libraries began providing free eBooks to the public through their web sites and associated services and 4) Google was founded by Larry Page and Sergey Brin. (To put the date into context, 1971 was the year that the first email message was ever sent– between two mainframe computers!) In 1985, the Voyager Company, a pioneer in CD-ROMs, was founded and published “expanded books” on CD-ROM including Michael Crichton’s Jurassic Park, and in 1993, Digital Book, Inc. Declaration of Independence, becoming the first eBook in the world. Hart launched Project Gutenberg and digitized the U.S. It would take over 40 years for Brown’s prescient vision to become reality. We have the talkies, but as yet no Readies.” He explained why it was needed, saying: “To continue reading at today’s speed, I must have a machine.” He described his ideal future e-reader as: “ A simple reading machine which I can carry or move around, attach to any old electric light plug and read hundred-thousand-word novels in 10 minutes if I want to, and I want to.” Furthermore, this machine would “ allow readers to adjust the type size and avoid paper cuts.” Wrote Brown: “ The written word hasn’t kept up with the age… The movies have outmaneuvered it. Image: Fantasy exhibit of an electronic simultaneous reading machine.
