Author Steven Johnson outlines a future with more books, more distractions through the agency of ebooks, the Amazon Kindle (and it's offshoot application on the iPhone) being the major excuse, but I'm experiencing it for myself using my Palm Treo. There is something quite handy about being able to carry around a large number of books and being able to chop and change between them as I go. It occupies all those empty moments while waiting for other things to happen, like bus trips and waiting rooms where dragging out one's knitting is not necessarily a convenient thing to do.
Mind you, it strikes me that this reduces reading in public from its traditional subversive status to something that no one knows you are doing (you could be texting your lover for an assignation after all, and who else needs to know that?) and elevates knitting or crocheting in public to a quite rebellious action!
Ebooks make reading all those PDFs so much more easy than trying to read them on a monitor with the associated eye-strain and 'cricked neck' that is usually resolved by printing the whole thing on single sided sheets of paper. There by increasing the whole waste paper/ink load in rubbish collection - not to mention the increase in paper that is then stored in filing cabinets until it is forgotten and reprinted because one cannot remember where the original printout is.
I can see that the ebook readers on offer have a distinct advantage over my Treo; the screens are bigger for a start and have the physical presence of a "real book".
But I have software on my Treo that means I can add notes directly to the text, draw cartoons as needed, or otherwise highlight the text of what I'm reading as well as play solitaire, create an email and send it to someone based on a passing thought, or web surf to confirm an idea, all while still being involved in the text that I'm reading. I expect that the iPhone (given it's huge user base and stylish interface) to be even more effective than the equipment I use.
My challenge is to find ways of encouraging the use of e-readers (be they ereader or phone) so as to reduce the amount of paper is printed out, and then connecting the electronic text with electronic comment by the reader so that they can find it later and link it with other things.
This means that somehow I have to encourage the people I deal with to find the time to learn new software/equipment that at first glance is not necessary to the way they find information or record their contemplations on it. And that won't happen until there is that moment when the amount of material available electronically is more attractive (both cost wise and comfort wise) than the inconvenience of printing things out and using paper.
That and the cost of the equipment reduces and is available everywhere. Until then, reading in public I think will maintain it's slightly subversive edge (only now it might also be a bit 'techy')
Mind you, it strikes me that this reduces reading in public from its traditional subversive status to something that no one knows you are doing (you could be texting your lover for an assignation after all, and who else needs to know that?) and elevates knitting or crocheting in public to a quite rebellious action!
Ebooks make reading all those PDFs so much more easy than trying to read them on a monitor with the associated eye-strain and 'cricked neck' that is usually resolved by printing the whole thing on single sided sheets of paper. There by increasing the whole waste paper/ink load in rubbish collection - not to mention the increase in paper that is then stored in filing cabinets until it is forgotten and reprinted because one cannot remember where the original printout is.
I can see that the ebook readers on offer have a distinct advantage over my Treo; the screens are bigger for a start and have the physical presence of a "real book".
But I have software on my Treo that means I can add notes directly to the text, draw cartoons as needed, or otherwise highlight the text of what I'm reading as well as play solitaire, create an email and send it to someone based on a passing thought, or web surf to confirm an idea, all while still being involved in the text that I'm reading. I expect that the iPhone (given it's huge user base and stylish interface) to be even more effective than the equipment I use.
My challenge is to find ways of encouraging the use of e-readers (be they ereader or phone) so as to reduce the amount of paper is printed out, and then connecting the electronic text with electronic comment by the reader so that they can find it later and link it with other things.
This means that somehow I have to encourage the people I deal with to find the time to learn new software/equipment that at first glance is not necessary to the way they find information or record their contemplations on it. And that won't happen until there is that moment when the amount of material available electronically is more attractive (both cost wise and comfort wise) than the inconvenience of printing things out and using paper.
That and the cost of the equipment reduces and is available everywhere. Until then, reading in public I think will maintain it's slightly subversive edge (only now it might also be a bit 'techy')
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