39: Electronic Books

We take books for granted in our day-to-day lives and rarely think of them as a technology in the way that we think of computers or cell phones. In fact, however, books are a relatively new technology dating back to the late medieval period when primitive versions of them were printed from woodblocks. The modern book, based on the technology of moveable type, was invented in about 1450 by Johannes Gutenberg.

The modern book is dramatically different from other textual devices. It is in many ways much more efficient than the ancient scroll, which was used throughout the Middle Ages, and which required one to move from beginning to end or from back to front—literally unwinding the text as one read. Referencing a specific line of text was a difficult task, since there were not clear lines or measured sections of text set off in the scroll.