It will undoubtedly open another exciting chapter for the digital era.
This is the electronic book - the same size as your average paperback, but with a 160-novel memory, promising to keep you reading for much longer.
The Sony Reader is being launched in Britain this week by Sony and Waterstone's - and they believe its price tag of £199 should make it affordable to many.
The Sony Reader costs £199 and can store 160 books
But not everyone will be gripped by its launch. Some doubt that the electronic novel could ever spell the end of the traditional page-turner.
At 9oz, the e-book weighs less than a hardback and has a battery which would probably give you long enough to read War And Peace five times, because it only uses power when you turn a page.
The e-book mimics the page-turning of an ordinary novel.
And unlike a computer, there is no glare on the screen. When you switch it on, it brings up the last page you read, and text can be magnified.
Each Sony Reader will be sold with a CD containing 100 books and plays, including Dracula, Romeo and Juliet, Pride and Prejudice and Great Expectations.
Waterstone's has tens of thousands of titles waiting to be downloaded on to the e-book from its website. Buying one will cost about the same as a traditional book.
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The device, being launched on Thursday, is not the first e-book to hit the market. Amazon has been selling its Kindle in the U.S. for about £200 and Borders sells its own version, the Iliad, for £399.
Amazon founder Jeff Bezos has described books as 'the last bastion of analogue'.
But authors and publishers are divided on their future.
John Makinson, of publishers Penguin, said: 'There is a broad audience out there for electronic books. To what extent they will be a major alternative to traditional books, we don't know.'
By 2010, he predicts e-books will account for 1 per cent of sales.
But Nick Hornby, whose novels include Fever Pitch, is sceptical.
'There is currently much consternation in the industry about the future of the conventional book, but my suspicion is that it will prove to be more tenacious than the CD,' he said.
'Readers of books like books. Music fans never had much affection for CDs.'
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