Back in 2002, the organizers of the Frankfurt Book Fair granted “new media” purveyors their own hall. Entering this space was something of a sensory onslaught, with light and sound coming from every direction. Some of the largest and fanciest stands presented the new wave of e-book readers, which were being hyped in the tech press as the new way to read. At one of the stands—Cytale’s, as I recall—a young French woman pressed one of the devices into my hands. It did not impress me. It was dull looking, reacted slowly, and had access to a tiny sliver of content.
