an electronic device, be it a computer, a
laptop, a PDA, a mobile phone, a smartphone or a reading
device. This emerging market took off in 2003, and more and
more books were simultaneously published as a print book and a
digital book.

In the 1990s, few people believed digital books would be
commonplace in the near future. They thought people would still
be attached to print books regardless of whatever happened,
remembering this sentence of Robert Downs, a librarian who
wrote in the 1980s: "My lifelong love affair with books and
reading continues unaffected by automation, computers, and all
other forms of the twentieth-century gadgetry." (excerpt from
"Books in My Life", Library of Congress, 1985)

In an article published in February 1996 by the Swiss magazine
"Informatique-Informations", Pierre Perroud, founder of the
digital library Athena, explained that "electronic texts
represent an encouragement to reading and a convivial
participation to culture dissemination", particularly for
textual research and text study. These texts are "a good
complement to the print book, which remains irreplaceable when
for 'true' reading. (...) The book remains a mysteriously holy
companion with profound symbolism for us: we grip it in our
hands, we hold it against us, we look at it with admiration;
its small size comforts us and its content impresses us; its
fragility contains a density we are fascinated by; like man it
fears water and fire, but it has the power to shelter man's
thoughts from time."

Roberto Hernandez Montoya, an editor of the electronic magazine
Venezuela Analitica, wrote in September 1998: "The printed text
can't be replaced, at least not for the foreseeable future. The
paper book is a tremendous 'machine'. We can't leaf through an
electronic book in the same way as a paper book. On the other
hand electronic use allows us to locate text chains more
quickly. In a certain way we can more intensively read the
electronic text, even with the inconvenience of reading on the
screen. The electronic book is less expensive and can be more
easily distributed worldwide (if we don't count the cost of the
computer and the internet connection)."

In the 2000s, while many people still prefer reading a print
book, more and more readers enjoy reading their ebooks on their
notebook, smartphone or any other electronic device. They buy
their ebooks online from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Yahoo, Palm,
Mobipocket or Numilog.

In