T he movies couldn’t do it. Radio couldn’t do it. Even television couldn’t do it. With each great leap forward in communications, pundits have prophesied the death of the lowly, old-fashioned paper book. Now it’s the Internet’s tum, as growing numbers of technophiles claim that Internet e-publishing will deliver the deathblow to paperbacks. There is not yet a clear and broadly accepted definition of the term ‘ebook.’ Sometimes it refers to a book that’s available in any online or downloadable electronic form and therefore accessible on almost any PC. It is also used to describe a handheld device specifically designed for reading electronically distributed books, or the content int~nded for use in such a device. Microsoft, touting its ebook reading software, predicts that ebook sales will overtake paper by 2009. Bill Gates and other hightech aficionados say digital books will be significantly cheaper than printed titles, because there won’t be
