Of e-books and paperbacks

[NaokoSmith]

This essay by Julian Baggini looks at research on how we respond to the written word differently in e vs. paper format.

Ways of reading

 

[sr71plt]

Interesting and food for thought (although it's what has been in discussion for years already). I haven't moved to e-books in my personal reading. Don't own an e-reader (other than my computer. I do have a few e-books on my computer and have read one there that I didn't write). But I'm heavily involved in the e-book market, so I celebrate that there are those who like to read that way. I try to cover both bases in my books. If they are long enough, they are published both as e-books and paperbacks and I let the individual reader choose their reading mode.

 

[NaokoSmith]

Interesting and food for thought (although it's what has been in discussion for years already). I haven't moved to e-books in my personal reading. Don't own an e-reader (other than my computer. I do have a few e-books on my computer and have read one there that I didn't write). But I'm heavily involved in the e-book market, so I celebrate that there are those who like to read that way. I try to cover both bases in my books. If they are long enough, they are published both as e-books and paperbacks and I let the individual reader choose their reading mode.

I love the feel of books! the riffling of the pages, the quality of the paper. My copy of Mimesis is printed on such high quality and such thin paper - so delicate. I was showing it to a friend the other day; he picked it up and felt the paper, smelt it and told me it was printed in the 1970s, he can tell when a book was printed from the smell!

Sometimes you used to find in bookshops a very old published book, with uncut pages! Did you know that they used to sell the books with the paper still in folds, and you would go through with a paper knife cutting each page away from the others? (You would of course be sitting in a wing armchair by a log fire, with your butler bringing you a drink. LOL, on the table was a paper knife, a linen handkerchief and a new book with the pages still uncut.) My copy of Rabelais' Pantagruel came like that! OMG, I was panting before I even started reading that 15th century porn.

I read a lot on my netbook, because I'm editing stories in Word, and also reviewing online books. I have the Kindle app on it.

But for the sensual experience, I will always be taking massive heavy books away with me on holiday, LOL.

 

[Hypoxia]

Interesting article. Did not delve into form factors vs content formatting. For example, I find fat blocks of text more digestible on paper than on screen. Page designs need to be tailored to the medium for clarity and comfort. Typographers have known this for centuries.

I possess zillions of paper publications, several much-used laptops, a tablet, a simple (dumb) cellphone, and a few portable players for audiobooks. Each is best for different circumstances. Walking in the woods? Audiobook. Reading music, or waiting briefly, or out in bright sunshine? Paper. Browsing LIT or tech guides? Tablet. Reading to write, or referencing? Laptop.

Ah, but which allows me to best absorb what has been transmitted? I think that has more to do with my state of mind than with the medium. Silently reading a text, and hearing it read aloud, affect me differently. I build different mental images. Knowing that I can annotate a paper text, but not one read on my tablet, puts my head in different places.

I'll just try to absorb it all. More input!

 

[PennLady]

I find the problem with this argument is that it often devolves into this black and white divide. It is possible to have both e-readers and print books, and to enjoy both equally. That's me.

I love print books. I still buy them, I get them from the library, I snag them off the free table if I see something good, I still receive them as presents sometimes (most recent: "Magnificent Vibration" by Rick Springfield for Mother's Day), and I still give them as presents (gave Mr. Penn three for Father's Day).

However, I also have a Kindle (e-ink) and an iPad, and I have books on those. Mostly free ones, I'll admit. When I first got my Kindle, I grabbed a lot of public domain stuff, a lot of classics like Jane Austen and Charles Dickens, but also Edgar Rice Burroughs, Jules Verne, and others. Why? It was cheaper and although I had print copies of many of those, it was nice to have them in a more portable format.

Reading on the Kindle is nice because I can lay it flat and not need to hold a page down, or lose a page, and because the e-ink screen is easy on the eyes. Reading a print book is nice because you have a different tactile experience, admittedly.

But I just like to *read*, and the tactile experience, while nice, isn't a deal-breaker for me.

I doubt print will disappear entirely. It's too entrenched in our culture and society -- how long have we been hearing about the "paperless society," for example, and we're nowhere near it. My kids are still paper-first when it comes to reading. They both have lots of their own books on their own shelves, they take out books from our local library and their school library. But my son also has a Nook, and reads on that. My daughter will likely read some books on her Kindle Fire when she gets a little older.

It's just a mix, and each has different advantages. My dad (a very non-techie person) loads up his Kindle before going on vacation because there are a lot more charges for the weight of your luggage now. But I won't argue the nice feeling of curling up in bed or on the couch with a book.

I just think it's too soon to say that one method is going to seriously displace the other.

 

[NaokoSmith]

PL, you saying that about a paperless world reminded me of this video, which I'm sure you must've seen.

Paperless World

 

[Hypoxia]

PL, you saying that about a paperless world reminded me of this video, which I'm sure you must've seen.

Paperless World

I mentioned that as one of paper's advantages, heh heh.

Of course, we have traditional alternatives. Like corncobs.

(Maybe I'll tell the guest-with-a-corncob story some time.)

 

[Aynmair]

I was an early adopter of iPads (had a first gen) but not for reading, and it took me a while to do much reading of e-books. I love paper, the feel, the smell, the look. But not the weight. Back problems...

Several reasons made me change my mind about e-books:

- absolutely love the back- lit screen, much better than the original Kindle (which is long out of power and gathering dust)

- easy way to travel with a library!

- easy to buy stuff on a whim, esp. now when there are hardly any bookstores (circular argument, I know, but I kept them in business and still do)

- lets's be honest: I'd rather have my erotica on my iPad

Things I don't like:

- not so easy to share books (I use my iPad for lots of things, so don't want to trade with my partner)

- not a great browsing, page - flipping experience

- shopping at e-bookstores is so meh compared to the real thing; and I don't mean B&N, but the real thang, like found in cities like Seattle and Washington, DC

 

[oggbashan]

My physical library is a problem. I still have too many books despite having reduced it in size to about a third of its maximum. I now have about 6,000 books, and the turnover is about 100 a month in and out.

My concern with e-readers, and yes I have one, loaded with over 35,000 titles, is that the technology is still evolving. I am worried that I will need to keep updating, and transferring titles, as the equipment becomes outdated or simply fails.

I can't read as fast with an e-reader as I can with a printed book. The refresh rate on the screen just won't keep up with my speed-reading, even though I have slowed down with age. My desktop will cope because I can see more of a page or pages at once, and scrolling is faster.

I own and read books printed in the 17th Century. My grandchildren will be able to read them too - if they want to. But will my e-texts be readable in 20 or 30 years time? Or in 300 years? My printed books will still be readable.

 

[NaokoSmith]

What's interesting in the article is how e-reading and paper reading are capable of supporting different ways of reading. I am always telling my students not to read the text books like novels. They will not get to the end and find out: It was Foucault who did it! (They don't like Foucault cuz they don't know how to pronounce his name. I have great trouble resisting a few suggestions on this . I say, "I just call him Michel".)

A while back, we moved to electronic marking. We all bitched and moaned about it. We said it would make us go blind (that was our story, we are sticking to it). Now I love it. I can put comments down the side of the text. I can rewrite passages of the students' work using track changes. I can instantly highlight their evil tendency to abuse the poor inverted comma. I can carry loads of scripts to mark, and a filthy dirty novel by TXRad to edit all in my li'l netbook, without breaking my back.

I keep thinking I would like to read and mark up my academic texts and make comments down the side in electronic form. But I don't. I like to write in the margins of the page with a pencil, so I can rub it out in a few years' time when I changed my mind. (Ahhh, see the gentle way I positioned that inverted comma properly, so that it is just a little exposed like the curve of a thigh when your skirt rides up.)

 

[Tio_Narratore]

I find e-books fine for reading, and certainly convenient when traveling, but I do prefer print. An actual book has texture and weight to feel, dimensions to be seen, a distinct sound when pages are turned or the book is laid down, a smell of ink and paper and age, and to some, who turn pages with saliva-moistened finger, a taste (does anyone do that still, after Eco's Name of the Rose?); in short, a real book is sensual in a way no e-reader can match. And I like sensuality.
Additionally, an actual book can be possessed; it is yours. You can keep it, give it away, loan it out, make a present of it (I really can't see giving my graduating students an e-book instead of a printed tome), and more. An e-book never belongs to you; you've only paid for the right to read it.
But as far as the different minds of reading, I find no difference. I get lost in the words and the images they convey no matter what the medium.

 

[PennLady]

My concern with e-readers, and yes I have one, loaded with over 35,000 titles, is that the technology is still evolving. I am worried that I will need to keep updating, and transferring titles, as the equipment becomes outdated or simply fails.

Yep. I have that concern, too, and I don't think it's one you can entirely get away from. However, at the moment, it's not a huge problem, so I can't be too concerned.

 

[soflabbwlvr]

My physical library is a problem. I still have too many books despite having reduced it in size to about a third of its maximum. I now have about 6,000 books, and the turnover is about 100 a month in and out.

My library is not so extensive, but I can relate to the physical problems. I moved last weekend, and except for furniture, moving my library was by far the most difficult part of the move.

My concern with e-readers, and yes I have one, loaded with over 35,000 titles, is that the technology is still evolving. I am worried that I will need to keep updating, and transferring titles, as the equipment becomes outdated or simply fails.

This is true of all media. Vinyl gave way to CDs, which have been replaced by MP3s, which are already out of date.

VHS was replaced by DVDs, which are being replaced by blu-ray, which are also out of date. (By "out of date" I mean that a superior technology already exists, whether it is marketable or not).

And that's not even considering the little wars for market dominance that take place each generation. (VHS vs. Beta, blu-ray vs HDDVD, etc.)

I suspect that ebooks will follow a similar trajectory.

 

[sr71plt]

With electronic predecessors to today's e-book, you actually had the copy (although your reader would go obsolete at some point). But with Amazon and other distributors, you don't actually "have" the copy. It resides on their servers. We'd already had some examples of distributors going out of business and either having to move your access to what you already bought to another computer or your losing access altogether. I not longer can get to all of the e-books I once bought.

 

[stickygirl]

My internet connection was down this morning ... no emails, no Lit. Damned cloud

I'm happy to read technical articles in electronic form: they are seldom in print, but I'm an age (just) when I remember being given books, not Amazon credits.

Today, I buy my second hand books from a grubby old bookshop that smells of damp and tobacco and has huge cobwebs on the ceiling and a solitary old office chair with no cushion in my preferred section. It's owned by an old hippy who reads too much zen, but has an encyclopedic knowledge of books and authors and remembers which books I enjoyed last year. I never know what I'm going to buy, but let a title jump out at me: I'll read a paragraph to confirm the happy serendipity of my choice and pay £2.50 or less. I particularly like it that some else has read the book before me and that I am recycling; that it will be around for another hundred years and someone else will read it after me. I feel I am part of process and I second Tio's thoughts on the importance of the emotional engagement with the fabric of the page. I read to be moved and paper is my magic carpet of choice.

How could a click-download ever compare to that experience?

The only objection I have to books are the left hand pages when I'm eating lunch, because it's almost impossible to hold the book open in one hand whilst holding a sandwich in the other.

 

[FantasyXY]

The only objection I have to books are the left hand pages when I'm eating lunch, because it's almost impossible to hold the book open in one hand whilst holding a sandwich in the other.

So you call yours a SANDWICH... Interesting!!

 

[PennLady]

With electronic predecessors to today's e-book, you actually had the copy (although your reader would go obsolete at some point). But with Amazon and other distributors, you don't actually "have" the copy. It resides on their servers. We'd already had some examples of distributors going out of business and either having to move your access to what you already bought to another computer or your losing access altogether. I not longer can get to all of the e-books I once bought.

But that's not entirely true. I have a Kindle (and an iPad), and I do indeed have my own copies of the books that I've bought, that I choose to download, on the device. I can also dl them to my computer. I do have an archive at Amazon (and I guess at iBooks), so I can re-download the books if I have a problem, but I do have my own files on my own devices.

I'm not saying it's not a concern, because it is.

How could a click-download ever compare to that experience?

It can't but it shouldn't have to. If you like to read on paper, fine. So do I. If you like looking through a bookstore, no problem. So do I. But I'm more about the content, not the delivery system. I wish people would stop treating this as directly comparable, or an either/or situation.

The only objection I have to books are the left hand pages when I'm eating lunch, because it's almost impossible to hold the book open in one hand whilst holding a sandwich in the other.

And if you have an e-reader, that's not a problem. And in both cases, one wants to avoid spilling food or drink on the medium.

 

[oggbashan]

With electronic predecessors to today's e-book, you actually had the copy (although your reader would go obsolete at some point). But with Amazon and other distributors, you don't actually "have" the copy. It resides on their servers. We'd already had some examples of distributors going out of business and either having to move your access to what you already bought to another computer or your losing access altogether. I not longer can get to all of the e-books I once bought.

All my e-books are in .txt or .pdf format.

I'm not sure about .pdf, but I think my .txt files will remain readable longer than I will survive.

And I OWN them. They are stored on my various hard drives, backed up on to CDs and DVDs (and earlier were on 5.25 and 3.5 floppies).

I download two or three books a month from Project Gutenberg.

If my e-reader dies, I can still read the files on my desktop and laptops.

 

[stickygirl]

It can't but it shouldn't have to. If you like to read on paper, fine. So do I. If you like looking through a bookstore, no problem. So do I. But I'm more about the content, not the delivery system. I wish people would stop treating this as directly comparable, or an either/or situation.

I'd never go the next step and start to be all snooty about it, as has happened in music reproduction ie vinyl v. digital, but my point is that the distinction between content and delivery system are inseparable, for me. I really not making it either/or - I want both for different reasons

 

[NaokoSmith]

I'd never go the next step and start to be all snooty about it, as has happened in music reproduction ie vinyl v. digital, but my point is that the distinction between content and delivery system are inseparable, for me. I really not making it either/or - I want both for different reasons

Yes! I mean, can you read a Kindle in the bath?

I remember when I dropped my book in the bath once, and I thought, 'Oh, that's good, I won't worry about doing that again.'

Hullo, girl-friend!

 

[lovecraft68]

Paperbacks are a dying breed. A lot of people who grew up with them still enjoy them. The smell, the feel, that awesome looking wall of books lined up on the shelves.

But we "came up" with books so although many may use e-readers most will still read books on occasions and there are die hards like me who always read the book(unless its an indie book and only in e-form)

But kids now are using e-readers at a very young age. They are not developing that love of books many of us were raised with. Eventually us dinosaurs will be extinct and so will the book stores.

 

[Hypoxia]

All my e-books are in .txt or .pdf format.

I'm not sure about .pdf, but I think my .txt files will remain readable longer than I will survive.

And I OWN them. They are stored on my various hard drives, backed up on to CDs and DVDs (and earlier were on 5.25 and 3.5 floppies).

I download two or three books a month from Project Gutenberg.

If my e-reader dies, I can still read the files on my desktop and laptops.

I am possessed by no subscription / rental literature. I have documents in a few more formats (.TXT, .PDF, .DOC, .DJVU, .MOBI, .EPUB, .HTML, .CBR, .CBZ, ) and some date back to 12" flops. (I even have texts on paper punch tape.) All are backed up. A corporate shutdown will not zap my e-library.

I'm cheap; I have a zillion texts from Project Gutenberg. (NOTE: PG-Australia provides texts unavailable from PG-USA due to Oz's more lenient copyright laws -- THE place to go for 1930's pulp fiction. RE Howard fans, take note.) Many other FREE texts are legally available at Archive.Org, the US Library of Congress and Smithsonian, and numerous other public domain repositories.

I'm not really interested in the latest hot books. If I wait a few weeks, they show up in secondhand stores and thrift shops, or at the county library.

I possess paper dating back to the 17th century. I am almost loathe to touch it without wearing gloves. Digital editions of ancient works are much easier to handle. Other paper is problematic. I own a complete set of CoEvolution Quarterly / Whole Earth Review issues, whose print is now too small for my deteriorating eyes to read. I'm not about to scan them all. They are essentially lost to me -' unless I want to spend a few hundred bucks to buy PDFs. Hmmm...

I'm now transitioning my library from paper to electrons. I look at the tens of thousands of volumes surrounding me and wonder, "Which of these will I ever read again? Which will my grandkids want to read?" Then I cull. Painful, but necessary.

 

[stickygirl]

Yes! I mean, can you read a Kindle in the bath?

I remember when I dropped my book in the bath once, and I thought, 'Oh, that's good, I won't worry about doing that again.'

Hullo, girl-friend!

Apparently now you can - in fact down to 210 feet. Phewee - what will they think of next? Waterproof books I shouldn't be surprised

http://www.product-reviews.net/wp-content/uploads/Waterproof-Kindle-Paperwhite.jpg
Technology vindicated

Hi hone - been too long

 

[NaokoSmith]

Apparently now you can - in fact down to 210 feet. Phewee - what will they think of next? Waterproof books I shouldn't be surprised

http://www.product-reviews.net/wp-content/uploads/Waterproof-Kindle-Paperwhite.jpg
Technology vindicated

Hi hone - been too long

, missed ya!

Well, didja evah!

I possess paper dating back to the 17th century. I am almost loathe to touch it without wearing gloves.

And Ogg, too, on 17th century books.

I own some copies of Scrutiny. When I used to teach literary criticism, and talked about The Great Tradition, it was such fun to get out these original magazines of Leavis's to give the students to pass round.

 

[PennLady]

Yes! I mean, can you read a Kindle in the bath?

I remember when I dropped my book in the bath once, and I thought, 'Oh, that's good, I won't worry about doing that again.'

But that kind of risk is a risk with anything. If I was so inclined, I could put my Kindle in a zip top bag and read in the bath.

Paperbacks are a dying breed. A lot of people who grew up with them still enjoy them. The smell, the feel, that awesome looking wall of books lined up on the shelves.

But we "came up" with books so although many may use e-readers most will still read books on occasions and there are die hards like me who always read the book(unless its an indie book and only in e-form)

But kids now are using e-readers at a very young age. They are not developing that love of books many of us were raised with. Eventually us dinosaurs will be extinct and so will the book stores.

I have to say from some personal experience that this kind of thing is not as imminent as you seem to think. My kids primarily read on paper. Their classrooms are full of print books, overstuffed even. My son checked out three or four books from our area library last week; my daughter has about a dozen out. My son has ordered a number of books from Scholastic over the last school year. He has books spilling off his bookcase and going under his bed. When I read to my daughter at night, it's nearly always on print books.

And it's not just my kids. A friend of his, a year younger, got off the bus half the time carrying a book he was reading. They even had something of a one-up contest going on reading, as in how long they couldn't go without it.

I'm telling you, print books are hardly going extinct. My house has shelves full of books not to mention piles on the floor. A love of books doesn't exclusively have to do with whether there is an e-alternative. There are probably a lot of parents who don't care about it so much, or just aren't big readers, and so neither will their kids be -- and it has nothing to do with e-readers.

When I was 22, long before e-readers, I was talking to a guy, a friend of a friend. I mentioned something about a book I liked and his reply was, basically, that he didn't care to read books. The occasional magazine article, but not books. I guess he didn't have the patience or attention span -- but this was 1992, long before Kindles and iPads.

Kids are using tools like tablets from a young age, no question, and there's not really anything wrong with that. But this idea of print books being on the verge of extinction, of the next generation (or two) not knowing about books or having that "experience" of books is just unfounded.