Could be that he is referring to lending of ebooks. And I'd feel sorry for anyone trying to learn physics, electronics, crafts, etc., on tiny e-readers which seem to have horrible support for graphics.
one of the ok-ish usecases of laptops with touchscreens.
Though a tablet would satisfy this use case far more effectively. If the book requires special software (for lending, etc.) that doesn't support mobile operating systems then a Windows 8/10 tablet is ideal in my opinion.