By sheer chance and (my) stupidity.
I have an extensive e-library of many thousands military tech pdf's.
My laptop was too big for reading comfortably so I thought that the new then e-paper devices would be the solution to my problem.
Kindle 1 was too expensive for my income so I held back for a couple of years.By 2010 I decided that the ~190euros for an Cybook Orizon were quite reasonable and I bought it.
Afterwards I found out that the 6" display wasn't big enough for a picture heavy pdf nor the e-paper the ideal tech.
Trying to make the best of my situation I started to sideload my friend's .txt novels to my Orizon(the funny part is until then I didn't noticed that the Orizon shipped with over 100 free ebooks in memory
).
The experience was a revelation(especially after I found out that in .epub format you could do so much).
I never looked back and never read a classic paper book since.