Electronic book reader with closely juxtaposed display screens

A portable electronic device for reading and studying pre-paginated electronic textual materials resident on the Internet comprising:

• a housing containing an electrical power supply;
• said housing containing a display screen;
• said display screen being capable of being split into a primary display screen and a secondary display screen;
• a primary electronic text in a first language having pagination information embedded therein for display page by page on said primary display screen;
• a secondary electronic text being a translation of said primary electronic text into a second language having pagination information embedded therein for display page by page on said secondary display screen;
• a primary page change counter that tracks a delta value equal to the number of page changes and that is automatically increased by one count for each primary page moved ahead by the user or is automatically decreased by one count for each primary page moved back by the user;
• user actuated primary page turning controls coupled to said primary display screen;
• user actuated secondary page turning controls coupled to said secondary display screen;
• automatic secondary page turning means responsive to the primary page change counter by which the page of secondary electronic text displayed on said secondary display screen is refreshed by moving the secondary page ahead or back by the number stored in said primary page change counter to reflect the page of primary electronic text chosen to be displayed by the user wherein said user actuated secondary page turning controls allow the user to compare the displayed page of primary text to the page of secondary text displayed after it is so refreshed, and, if deemed necessary by the user, to activate secondary page ahead means or secondary page back means in order to juxtapose the correct secondary page with the primary page in accordance with the translation of the primary text into said second language, and said primary counter is automatically reset to zero.

A method for operating a portable electronic device for reading and studying pre-paginated electronic textual materials resident on the Internet having two display screens juxtaposed in a side by side manner and a primary page change counter that tracks a delta value equal to the number of page changes made when reading or studying said materials comprising:

• providing a database operatively connected to the electronic device having at least two memory portions;
• storing a primary electronic text in a first language in the first of said memory portions, said text having pagination information embedded therein to allow for page by page display;
• storing a secondary electronic text being a translation of said primary electronic text into a second language in the second of said memory portions, said text having pagination information embedded therein to allow for page by page display;
• accessing said primary electronic text and displaying the first page of said primary electronic text on one of said display screens, being referred to herein as the primary display screen;
• accessing said secondary electronic text and displaying the first page of said secondary electronic text on the other of said display screens, being referred to herein as the secondary display screen;
• allowing the user to choose the page of the primary electronic text to be displayed on the primary display screen;
• increasing the primary page change counter automatically by one count for each primary page moved ahead by the user or decreasing said primary counter automatically by one count for each primary page moved back by said user;
• automatically changing the page of the secondary electronic text displayed on the secondary display screen by moving the secondary pages ahead or back by the number of pages equal to the number stored in the primary page change counter to reflect the page of primary electronic text then chosen by the user to be displayed on the primary display screen;
• allowing the user to compare the displayed primary text to the page of the secondary electronic text displayed after such automatic changing, and, if deemed necessary by the user, allowing the user to activate secondary page ahead means or secondary page back means in order to juxtapose the correct secondary page with the primary page in accordance with the translation of the primary translation into said second language,
• and automatically resetting said primary counter to zero;
• whereby the pages of primary electronic text and secondary electronic text are juxtaposed properly in the discretion of the user.