What is an e-book?

In general, the term e-book (electronic book) is a literary monograph published in digital form and available through special devices. Note that the adjective ‘literary’, in this definition, in the universal sense of intelligence work as a verbal text, and does not relate exclusively to literary works as aesthetic objects (novel, poem, dramatic text) separated texts from fiction, science and so on. The determination of ‘monographs’ a different e-book itself from the electronic version of a periodical publication, to indicate which one tends to adopt the term e-journal (electronic magazine). The use of generic e-publication (electronic publication) was suggested to refer to any kind of works published in digital format.

In reality the vast publishing e-books dedicated to the use of terminology is not always rigorous. In particular, the term e-book is commonly used to indicate both a publication on digital media (of any kind), and the tools with which to access it (especially in reference to the hardware that have been specifically developed for this purpose). To avoid this ambivalence – which is also the word book – we’ll use the term ‘reading device’ in order to identify the hardware and software tools that allow a user to have access to a literary work in electronic format.