UK book lovers are gearing up for the release of an electronic 'book' which has enough memory to hold up to 160 novels.
The Sony Reader was launched by model Lily Cole in London ahead of its release nationwide.
The £199 gadget weighs 260g - less than a hardback - and has a battery life equivalent to approximately 6,800 continuous page turns. And there is plenty of choice of reading matter, with tens of thousands of titles available to download onto the device.
"In these extremely fast-paced times it's hard for book lovers like me to read on the go," said Miss Cole, 20, who is about to begin reading social and political sciences at King's College, Cambridge. "This device allows me the freedom to carry around hundreds of books all under one cover."
However, the gadget is unlikely to kill off the traditional paper book, according to the British Library.
"We have books at the British Library that have been annotated by the authors or by famous people and people are still going to want to experience that," said Stephen Bury, head of the library's European and American collections.
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