There were forerunners. Nicholson Baker in his 2001 book Double Fold raging at early library digitization efforts that destroyed their physical holdings. Google contracting with the University of Michigan on the quiet in 2004 to digitize their books, bypassing copyright. Other than needing content to feed the adolescent Internet beast that now controls the world, there were more high-minded reasons for digitization. Something like three out of every four books that have ever been published are now out of print, inaccessible unless you hunt online or haunt thrift stores. Physical volumes are expensive to house, and only useful to the...