An electronic book published in 2004 is about as anomalous a cultural entity as they make 'em. Little loved in this, their infancy (i.e., commanding a miniscule readership within a miniscule readership: i.e., readers of books), e-books are mainly praised for their portability and tolerated by their corporate backers because they are believed to represent 'the future of publishing' (never, oddly, 'a future'; always: 'the future').