Our latest infographic goes through the milestones in the history of ebooks, puts together essential benefits, and shows how attitudes towards ebooks evolve.

To celebrate the 50th anniversary of ebooks, we have prepared another piece of content – this time it’s visual.

The infographic is based on the list of 50 most interesting facts about ebooks and audiobooks. The timeline is obviously the most important part, as ebooks turn 50 at the beginning of July.

Yes, it’s been 50 years since Michael Stern Hart had typed the text of the US Declaration of Independence on a terribly expensive Xerox Sigma V mainframe and sent it to other users of the University of Illinois network.

The world’s first ebook is still available, and you can download it for free directly from the Project Gutenberg – the home of the world’s earliest ebooks, and a fantastic source of publications that have entered the public domain.

The infographic includes also a list of major benefits, lesser known facts, as well as a Google search instant suggestions that show how our attitudes towards ebooks evolved in the recent ten years.

Don’t hesitate to share the visual with your friends and followers and make sure to come back for more staff that celebrates the 50th anniversary of ebooks.

Keep exploring. Here are other visual projects created by our team:

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Nowadays, short stories have one certain benefit: they are short. And “short” doesn’t only mean the number of words or characters. It also means the fast pace, the single-minded plot, and the concise form.

Someone may say a short story is a substitute for a novel. Oh, it’s just like YouTube is a substitute for the cinema. Or a Facebook chat is a substitute for the real-life conversation.

Let’s face it: digital reality is switching our lives. And when it comes to reading, the balance is switched to the benefit of short-form fiction.

In times of traditional publishing, a 25-page short story was not serious enough to bear the cost of printing and distributing it as a separate publication.

Nowadays, authors can publish any piece of writing in a digital form, no matter how long – or short – it is.

It changes the perspective. A short story published as a Kindle Single is a fully-fledged electronic book – with a cover, blurb, and reviews. And when you finish it, you can say: Hey, I’ve read a great book!

It’s not justified to say that we face the revival of short stories. But short stories may turn out to be the most effective tool of a revival of reading in digital times.

6 benefits of reading short stories

1. A certainty you’ll read the entire piece

Many people who don’t read books share a common attitude: This novel sounds interesting, but I won’t have time to read it, so why start at all?

Having no time to read is one of the major reasons people stop reading books. Sometimes it’s just an excuse – every time you watch YouTube videos or go through the Twitter timeline for hours.

But there is one essential difference between reading a book and exploring a social network. The end of the latter is when you decide so. The end of a book is fixed.

In a novel, the last line is hours, days, or weeks away. It depends on how long your reading sessions are and how often find time for books.

In a short story, it may be in the next 15 minutes. Sure, it may take longer, but the time range is short. Short enough to imagine when you’ll finish reading and in which circumstances (by the time I leave a subway, this evening in a bath, etc.).

You may find it hard to finish the entire novel. But you may also try very hard not to finish the entire short story.

2. A pleasure of finishing a story

Why is finishing a book so important? Because when you give up reading before the end, you feel discouraged.

You may try one or two more times and, eventually, come to the conclusion that reading is… well, you don’t have time for reading.

What happens when you finish a story? No matter whether it’s a novel, a novella, an essay, or a flash fiction piece, you expect a wonderful feeling to come. It’s a feeling of accomplishment.

Moving forward by accomplishing goals one by another. It’s what life is about, isn’t it?

There is one more thing. Reading fiction is about visiting unknown, exciting worlds, full of characters you’d love to meet in person. Reading a book is like going on a journey. The feelings and dynamics are the same: from expectations to excitement, to doubts, to fulfillment, to nostalgia.

Imagine you can fly to one of these unknown worlds and come back safely before you finish drinking a cup of coffee.

3. An incentive to reach for the next read

People who are stuck reading several books rarely reach for the new one. They are right thinking it’s not right to leave behind something that’s not finished.

A green – big and bright – light to read the next book turns on when you finish the previous one. Hey, you are now free to move forward!

It’s after finishing the last sentence when you are fully justified to evaluate the book.

When you conclude the read was great, you’ll try to find something similar: from the same author, genre, or something that deals with the same topic.

When the story hasn’t met your expectations, you will be more open to trying something completely different.

4. A convenient way to try new genres and authors

It’s where short stories come extremely handy.

What do you do when you are not satisfied with your last read? You are thinking about how to refresh your reading list. Why not trying titles, authors or genres you never knew would ever get interested. By the way, have you read anything from planetary romance, nanopunk, or tech-absurd?

A common way to get acquainted with a new genre or author is to buy its most prominent work. But why buy the book if you’ll not like it in the end?

Obviously, with digital books on board, you can always download a free sample. Well, free samples are not quite suited for exploring literature, because they often end before the author introduces the main character or starts a leading plot.

Any other ideas? Check out the short stories or short story collections from genres or authors you plan to read.

Short stories with their right-to-the-point plot and concise form are a convenient way to learn about the style and characteristics of the literary work you are about to discover.

5. A great read between the novels

It’s true that as an activity reading is more demanding than other daily pleasures, such as watching TV.

Sometimes, after finishing a long, fascinating, and deeply involving novel, it’s good to make a break.

Having a break from a novel doesn’t mean you have to make a break from reading. You can reach for an easier and less challenging read – a short story.

Refreshing the mind is all about changing conditions, and leaving the path.

You can read one short story and make one short and intensive step aside. Or you can read a short story collection and dive into unexplored lands for just a bit longer.

When you are finally back on tracks, you’ll eagerly reach for the next novel of your favorite author, or the next volume in a book saga you’re reading.

6. A way to bring back the habit of daily reading

Take a look around. Having a minute of spare time, people take out their smartphones and check out their Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

It’s an example of a highly effective use of time. Why not give the book a try? And it doesn’t mean you have to keep the book in your purse or backpack. You can download a free book reading app and place its icon next to Facebook’s.

Now, it’s all about what you expect. When you open Facebook, scrolling through a couple of latest status messages makes it already a finished activity, no matter when you decide to stop.

When you open a book app, you imagine the time you spend reading – five minutes or half an hour – is a tiny little percent of what is left.

Short stories are suitable to be read in short chunks. A single chunk may be a substantial part of the entire story.

Even when you read a short story for five minutes, you see the progress – and this is encouraging to reach for it the soonest you’ll have the next few spare minutes.

Download a short story collection to your book reading app. Reading one story might take less time than going back home from work on a subway.

Conclusion

Maybe, for avid readers, short stories will never become a serious kind of read. But for occasional readers, they can be a serious chance to find some space for reading books among other daily activities.

Benefits of reading short stories – infographic

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Almost 40,000 libraries and schools in over 30 countries use OverDrive platform to offer their users books in digital format.

The catalog includes over 2 million ebooks and audiobooks from 5,000 publishers, in over 100 languages. Currently, users are borrowing 12 titles every single second.

OverDrive started distributing digital content to libraries in 2003. The first ebook was checked out on April 8. Since that time, more than 1 billion digital books were borrowed from connected public and school libraries.

The company is celebrating this milestone with an infographic that puts together interesting facts about most popular books and authors.

A section that ranks authors based on the total number of checkouts of their books is extremely interesting, as it shows how popular the service is.

Take a look. Ebooks and audiobooks authored or co-authored by James Patterson were borrowed 20,943,434 times. When you compare this number with how many James Patterson books are available in different formats and languages in the OverDrive catalog (currently, it’s 1,998), you’ll see that on average one title was borrowed 10,500 times.

Nora Roberts is the other author with the number of checkouts higher than 10 million – it’s 11,803,920. The last author in the Top 10, Rick Riordan, enjoyed “only” some 4.4 million checkouts.

It’s interesting that Gillian Flynn, the author of Gone Girl – the most borrowed OverDrive book of all time, didn’t make it to the list of most popular authors.

It you are a reader and would like to borrow library ebooks or audiobooks, check out whether your public or school library is powered by OverDrive.

If you’d want your library to join the network, read the details here.

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Take a look at the infographic below. We’ve created it to let you quickly scan through the most interesting items collected in our updated overview of 50 best iPad cases and accessories.

The list is one of the most popular posts in the Best 50 series. It actually puts together not 50 but over 70 most interesting items for your iPad. All iPad models are covered, including the iPad 9.7 2018, and latest iPad Pro tablets.

Click or tap the infographic to see it enlarged.

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Pew Research Center has recently released results of a survey that takes a closer look at reading habits in the United States.

The newest survey was conducted between January 3 and 10, 2018. Respondents were asked how many books, and in which format, they have read in the previous 12 months.

The most significant change is seen in the use of audiobooks. 18% of surveyed American adults claimed they have listened to an audiobook in the last year. It is 28% more than in April 2016, when the previous survey was conducted.

The growth of audiobook consumption affected ebooks. Their share decreased from 28% to 26%, while the use of print books increased from 65% to 67%. The total consumption of books in digital format (ebooks and audiobooks) reached 44%, what accounts for two-thirds of the use of books in print format.

Audiobooks are most popular among younger people. In the age group 18-29, as much as 23% of respondents said they listened to audiobooks. The share is slightly lower among 30- to 49-year-olds – it’s 22%.

In general, Americans are spreading their book consumption across several formats. 29% claim they read books both in print and digital formats (ebooks and/or audiobooks). It’s an insignificant increase from 28% in 2016.

According to the 2018 Pew Research Center, Americans read an average of 12 books per year. This figure is unchanged since 2011, when the company surveyed reading habits in the U.S. for the first time.

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Statista has just released highlights from a report by Author Earnings, taking a closer look at most popular audiobooks bought in the United States from the second to fourth quarter of 2017.

The chart lists genres, not particular titles. It gives a general idea which genres are better-suited for audiobook format than the others.

When you take a closer look at the list, you will realize some of the categories are repeated, for instance, “literature & fiction” and “fiction & literature.” Nevertheless, it’s worth looking at the figures. They give an idea of how many audiobooks are being sold in the United States.

Two first places on the list are occupied by a genre widely considered as literary fiction. When combined, the total number of units sold is reaching 5 million (and it’s for Q2-Q4 of 2017 only).

The next group in the ranking, with 1.6 million units sold, is mystery, thrillers, and suspense. Science fiction & fantasy category comes next (almost 1.4 million).

When you are looking at Audible bestsellers, you’ll see that business or self-help books take top places. The report from Author Earnings shows a different story. These categories are further down the ranking: business & money occupies the 7th position.

Via Statista.

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Since 2007, Kindle made millions of people rediscover the joy of reading. But it’s not only e-readers that changed the way we read. It’s the entire ecosystem that includes ebooks, services, and innovations.

The success of the 1st-generation Kindle would not be possible without the launch of the Kindle Store. Expansion of the digital reading would not be possible without Kindle apps. And reading Kindle ebooks would not be so convenient without Whispersync.

Based on our extensive timeline of Kindle e-readers and services, the infographic presents most significant events since the introduction of the Kindle Store, to the launch of Kindle Oasis 2.

Look how much has happened. And it’s only ten years!

Click or tap the infographic to see it enlarged. Feel free to share it on your blog – find the embed code under the image.

A history of Kindle devices and services

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Are we still afraid of ebooks? Which benefits are we most interested in? Which features are most needed? Are our attitudes towards digital books evolving?

It turns out Google web search can be a useful source of information. One of its features, Google Instant, suggests search phrases as you type.

The suggestions are based on popular searches. It means the four results you see in the drop down menu under the search box are the most common questions asked by internet users.

We asked Google four questions, starting with “will ebooks,” “are ebooks,” “can ebooks,” and “do ebooks.” We did it four times – in 2011, 2013, 2015, and 2017.

The results are presented in an infographic below, and if you’d like to further explore the topic, here are the previous highlights:

• What do we think about ebooks – 2015
• What do we think about ebooks – 2013
• What do we think about ebooks – 2011

Click or tap the infographic to see it in full resolution. Feel free to share it (Creative Commons license). You’ll find the embed code below the image.

What do we think about ebooks (infographic)

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What about finding bookish gifts that are not books? Gifts and accessories inspired by books and literature could be a refreshing change. The infographic below should give you a range of interesting ideas to follow.

Obviously, these gifts are perfect not only for Father’s Day, but also for Christmas, birthday, name day, or any other occasion.

The infographic is based on an extensive list of over thirty book-inspired gifts and accessories for dad. Don’t hesitate to check it out!

Click or tap the infographic to see it enlarged.

Feel free to share this image on your site (Creative Commons license). Get the embed code from below:

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Here are other infographics created by our team:

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Such gifts are perfect not only for Mother’s Day, but also for Christmas, birthday, name day, or when you just want to make your mom happier.

The infographic we present below is based on an extensive list of gifts and accessories for the mom who loves books. Make sure to check it out to get even more inspiration!

Click or tap the infographic to see it in full resolution.

Feel free to share this image on your site (Creative Commons license). Get the embed code from below:

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Here are other infographics created by our team:

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