E-readers definitely took off in 2009 after the release of Amazon's Kindle 2.0. Over the course of the preceding months, Amazon had progressively improved the amount of e-books available to go with its Kindle hardware. By the time of the Kindle 2.0 launch in February of 2009, practically a million Kindle e-books were available, featuring almost all of the most recent bestsellers at that time.
The combination of a huge collection of e-books and a very well handled hardware launch was all that was required to see sales of the Kindle 2.0 go through the roof. It rapidly became the top selling item on Amazon's webstore and was a massively popular selection in the run up to the different gift giving holidays like Christmas, Father's Day, Valentine's Day etc.
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As you can probably guess, I was a devotee of e-book readers right from the beginning. Nevertheless, I would certainly accept that these devices have been improved upon quite a bit during the last few years. E-ink displays are better than ever before - and the lighted versions are really good to use. They are smaller and lighter than previously and battery life has improved. In the meantime, whilst the hardware has been developing, the amount of available e-books has also increased tremendously. It would be a brave, or crazy, publisher who did not produce an electronic variation of a new book nowadays. You will be able to locate an e-book variation of almost any book you want nowadays.
The first time that I chanced upon electronic book readers, I realized that I had unearthed the perfect personal electronic device for me. Reading has ever been one of my most preferred interests and I also travel a great deal. The capacity to bring great numbers of books with me in a tiny, featherweight, gadget was perfect. And the added possibility that I could go online, purchase a new e-book and transfer it to my reader in barely sixty seconds was an added bonus. I could find myself a new book immediately - at any hour of the day.
For myself, I realised that I wasn't a bibliophile at all - I was merely an individual who basically appreciated reading. Contrary to yearning for the physical properties of a printed book, I considered e-readers liberating. Aside from having the ability to lug countless books around in one small device, I found it a lot easier to use an e-reader. Even when the space available is tight, you can manipulate an e-reader with one hand with no trouble at all. It's an excellent facility whenever you find yourself on a busy train, bus or maybe on a plane. Sitting propped up on the couch or in bed, manipulating an e-reader using just one hand is very easy. It's a lot easier than handling a hefty printed book (in my opinion at least).
E-book readers have gotten extremely popular during the past few years, as have the electronic books that are used with them. If you take into consideration how commonly accepted they are these days, it's easy to forget exactly what a fresh invention they are. The very first reader, the Franklin eBookman, first appeared as far back as 1999 - but unlike present-day readers, it did not possess an e-ink technology screen. Sony's PRS was most likely the first modern reader when it was launched in 2006. Amazon's first Kindle reader hit the Amazon webstore almost twelve months later in 2007. Even then, the original Kindle and PRS readers were far from universally taken up. They were viewed as something of a curiosity, chiefly picked up on by early adopters, geeks and nerds.
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