In a typical Boston bookshop customers move their way through the corridors and rooms to browse through thousands of books that are spread over two floors. “It’s a lot of paper” says one of the shop assistants. She admits that the store could get much smaller if the digital revolution gets to the bookshelves.

The catchword is e-book , or electronic book - something you read on screen instead of on paper. You can load books onto small computers to read while you are on the move .

There are lots of different e-books. Some are really computers and may even be bound in leather to look like a real book. The RocketBook , for example, is a portable that can display pages. Others are just computer programs which you can use to display books on your computer or notebook.

Then there are PDAs, or pocket computers, that can be used as an e-book if you have the right software. They are portable and have wireless connections to libraries or bookstores.

E-books have many advantages :

You can store lots of books on one computer.
You can mark your book with an electronic bookmark .
You can change the size of the type or font
Some e-books have built in dictionaries so you can click on a word and find out what it means.
And of course e-books can also include pictures, sound clips or small videos.