Oxford Dictionary of English defines e-books as “an electronic version of a printed book which can be read on a personal computer or hand-held device designed specifically for this purpose”. There are hardware devices like e-readers or e-book devices to read e-books. E-books can also be read on personal computers or cell phones.

Earlier they were only written for some particular audience and were specific to only a few subjects but with the expansion of the World Wide Web and its density among the users, they have emerged as the main source of knowledge. We can also get answers to many unanswered questions. It’s generally available in PDF (portable document format) files which can be easily installed in any machine.

There are many advantages to e-books. Some are as follows:

• The availability of e-books has increased up to 2 million as of August 2009. Through mobile data connection, many users can have e-books in their mobiles itself.
• An e-book takes very little space in comparison with the bundle of textbooks that are given us to read. It can store thousands of e-books which can only be limited by its memory capacity. It takes very little room at your home or your backpack.
• E-books are more appreciated by the users becomes of the fact it can translate the available book in any of the languages with which you are more comfortable. It does not come with printed translations but it changes the text in the user’s requested language.
• An e-reader attribute can give you lots of things that you can’t do while you are reading a text; for example, it can be read in low light or even in total darkness. Many readers have the ability to display font change, text-to-read software, and motion, find definitions and highlight bookmarks and annotation, search according to keywords. And all of this can be done by using less power and without any obstacle in our reading for weeks at times.
• The production of e-books is very much environment friendly because it does not include the use of paper or ink.
• For authors, it is cheaper and easier to publish e-books in comparison to printed books. An e-book can be purchased, downloaded, or used immediately, but to use a book we first have to find a bookshop, confirm its availability, and then purchase it.