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As a generic term, an electronic book (variously: e-book, eBook, e-Book, ebook, digital book or e-edition) or a digital book[1] is a book-publication in digital form, consisting of text, images, or both, readable on computers or other electronic devices.[2] Although sometimes defined as "an electronic version of a printed book",[3] many e-books exist without any printed equivalent. Commercially produced and sold e-books are usually intended to be read on dedicated e-readers. However, almost any sophisticated electronic device that features a controllable viewing screen, including computers, tablets and smartphones can also be used to read e-books. Nowadays, both print as well as e-book selling is moving to the web. For instance, in the United States of America more "books are published online than distributed in hard copy in book shops". The main reasons that people are buying books online are prices, comfort and selection process. Notwithstanding that most people appreciate higher regular "bricks & mortar" bookshops, "yet almost every single one of us is buying books online".[4] Based on this information it is almost certain that the e-publishing will soon overtake traditional publishing.

The Readies (1930)
The idea of the e-reader viewing e-books came to Bob Brown after watching his first "talkie" (movie with sound). In 1930, he wrote a book on this idea and titled it The Readies, playing off the idea of the "talkie". In his book, Brown says movies have outmaneuvered the book by creating the "talkies" and, as a result, reading should find a new medium: "A machine that will allow us to keep up with the vast volume of print available today and be optically pleasing".

Although Brown came up with the idea intellectually in the 1930s, early commercial e-readers did not follow his model. Nevertheless, Brown in many ways predicted what e-readers would become and what they would mean to the medium of reading. In an article Jennifer Schuessler writes, "The machine, Brown argued, would allow readers to adjust the type size, avoid paper cuts and save trees, all while hastening the day when words could be ‘recorded directly on the palpitating ether.’" He felt the e-reader should bring a completely new life to the medium of reading. Schuessler relates it to a DJ spinning bits of old songs to create a beat or an entirely new song as opposed to just a remix of a familiar song.

Candidates for the first e-book inventor
The inventor of the first e-book is not widely agreed upon. Some notable candidates include the following:

Ángela Ruiz Robles (1949)
In 1949, Ángela Ruiz Robles, a teacher from Galicia, Spain, patented in her country the first electronic book reader, la Enciclopedia Mecánica, or the Mechanical Encyclopedia. Her idea behind the device was to decrease the number of books that her pupils carried to the school.