The Future of Reading

Newsweek seems so over for me. When couldn't you have guessed who was going to get an up arrow or a down? The George Will thing is a joke. You either fly privately or you're a victim. That's the loyal readership.

Sorry- I thought the first comment didn't get through, so I re did it.

This looks like it could really be the way of the the future for schools and universities. After years of watching 80-pound middle school children carrying 20+ pounds of textbooks, I have been looking forward to the digital textbook. I can see schools getting site licenses for textbooks, that could be loaded onto readers that are issued bo the school to each student. The reader would have to be very tough, able to withstand being dropped, or spilled on, but would not need a large memory- maybe only 20 books per semester. It would need a color screen for illustrations, and the reader should be able to add notes, and download quotes to a pc for papers and talks, but there should be some encoding to cite the original, to deter plagerizing. A backpack would only be needed to hold a laptop, the Kindle-textbook and lunch.

This has a great potential for schools and universities, where the sheer weight of textbooks is daunting. After daily watching 80-pound middle school children lifting backpacks loaded with 20+ pounds of stuff, I have been looking forward to the digital textbook. It will have to be very tough, able to be dropped, or spilled on, etc., and would not need such a large memory. If the schools paid for a site license for each text, and the books were loaded onto school-owned readers for the duration of a semester, it could save schools money, and make life easier for students. A color screen for illustrations, and the ability to add notes to the text is also a must. A cut and paste feature, that could download quotes to a PC for papers and lectures, possibly with some encoding that would credit the original and could not be circumnavigated would deter plagerizing. Other ebook readers and PDAs had screens that were too small. This might just work.

*** Kindle

Kindle Sucks.

By far, the best thing about the Kindle is the promise of cheaper textbooks for students. A one-time purchase of the Kindle itself would be astronomically cheaper than the cost of even one freshman science textbook. And, unlike many college textbooks, students would have a purpose for the Kindle once they've graduated, and perhaps even encourage them to read for leisure. As a professor myself, I would much prefer to have the options for my students to buy e-books, instead of having them buy an expensive physical textbook that, let's face it, they would probably rarely use. And with so many college textbooks available on Amazon already, my one hope would be that the power of the Kindle would not go to Amazon's heads and with growing popularity start to charge a lot more money for each e-book.

I think the Kindle could definitely pave the way of the future for the publishing industry. Not only would they attract the younger generation who prefers to use technology to become informed, but they would also target those who have an interest to defend and sustain the environment. The E-Book does not use paper, nor will unsold copies of E-Books ever remain rotting in an old warehouse (http://www.flickr.com/photos/sweetjuniper/sets/72157603302647339/). The environmental advantages of the Kindle could not have come at a better time for Amazon, when the Western world is on a 'going green' kick, looking for any possible, minimally intrusive, way of reducing their waste on this planet.

I find it interesting that so many people jump to conclusions so quickly regarding a technology they have never even had their hands on. I agree that in the year 2008 reading a novel off a computer screen is not ideal. However, I am not going to bash the Kindle. Many of us are not environmentally friendly. Trees are being cut down by the minute. So many people do not recycle. When printing books is no longer an option we might actually have to turn to the Kindle in order to read. So I don't suggest people bash the Kindle too quickly.... because you just might not have a choice at some point in time.

"Day by day and almost minute by minute the past was brought up to date. In this way every prediction made by the Party could be shown by documentary evidence to have been correct; nor was any item of news, or any expression of opinion, which conflicted with the needs of the moment, ever allowed to remain on record. All history was a palimpsest, scraped clean and reinscribed exactly as often as was necessary."

The DRM in this device makes it perfect to bring about the new order described in Richard Stallman's essay "The Right to Read". (Google it)

The DRM in this device makes it perfect to bring about the new order described in Richard Stallman's essay "The Right to Read". (Google it)

The most natural market and benefit for the Kindle is the school textbook. From grade school to college teh books are horribly expensive because of their relatively low print runs. Because of the desire to give the purchaser a sense of value they can be very heavy: A 10 year old shouldn't have to have textbooks that weigh as much as him! Imagine a school buying a Kindle for every child and paying for it with the reduced cost of "books" that have no printing costs.

I'm 53 years old. My education and work experience is in IT. Yet, I avoid most high tech gadgets like the plague. I love my simple, low-tech life. But I also love to read. I love it! I think the Kindle is a wonderful invention and I look forward to buying my own. I question nostalgic comments like, "We're losing our books." To me, the words, not the binding, are the book. My obsession with reading has my book shelves overflowing, creating stacks of books all around the house. This is one technological advance that I will embrace.

I find something about this profoundly disturbing. While I submit to the growing popularity and function of the Internet in our everyday lives, I don't think I'm quite willing to give up books just yet. Reading something electronically is bad for your eyes and head and just seems, somehow, to devalue it. I like the look of a bookshelf in a room and the feel of a book in my hands. I like turning pages and wish for exciting stories to remain "page-turners," not be transformed into something with "click" in the name. A public library is open to anyone, regardless of socioeconomic status, but Kindle would be available only to those who have a computer connected to the Internet. I don't think it's a terrible idea or even one that shouldn't be pursued, I just think that if it truly does revolutionize the way people read books, we're all in trouble.

Even if the Kindle isn???t currently using advertising, it may very well become the platform to capitalize on a reader???s impulse purchase decisions and help save the struggling newspaper and print publishing industry.

The ???connected reading??? experience the Kindle enables will not only change the way people read, but also the way people use print media???any given publication becomes a living document, like the article says, with links to related opinions, multimedia and products. For more Kindle thoughts, see my blog: http://www.thecatalystcode.com/theconversation/blog/2007/12/05/will-kindle-ignite-a-catalytic-reaction-part-2/

It would seem that all is left is to pulverize a ton or so of old books into a fine dust to be puffed out a few times an hour from the ebook to give the reader the sense of reading a really good book. I don't think we need to go as far as housing ebooks in a flexible housing with the feel of the dried pulp of dead trees. But some may disagree.

The last step would seem to be to grind up a few tons of old books into a fine dust that can be loaded into an ebook with a mechanical device that ejects a few puffs an hour that fulfills our need to smell the accumulated dust of a book to really believe it is a book. Maybe we need to put the electronics in a spongy housing that feels like pulp from a dead tree as well--but I think most of us could live without that.
--Robert Beard
Author of Dr. Goodword's Word of the Day at alphaDictionary

As an reader and an author, I have mixed emotions about e-reading devices. I can't deny their inevitability--and yes, I'll use them myself--for some books. Other books are treausres, and the visceral experience, the smell and weight of the paper, the autographed copy, the sumptous cover art work is an exxperience, not just a function. Books are not an information-only entity. There is a quiet reverence that books offer those who appreciate it. Books are art.
~Carol D. O'Dell
Author of Mothering Mother