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Tim Gray, writing in the New York Reviews of Books, has a very interesting article that asks whether it has become impossible to find the uninterrupted blocks of time that are needed to read serious works of literature, and whether the change in the reading environment is also changing how books are written.
Ordinarily I ignore the "Computer Bad! Destroy Society!" arguments, but I have to say that what he describes seems all too familiar. I can't recall the last time that I actually sat down for two or three hours just to read.
I grew up spending hours each day, every day devouring books of all sorts. Is this a thing that's lost to people raised with Internet, Game Consoles, and Smartphones? Pardon me if I sound like an old fart.
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Is Always On Tech Destroying Our Ability To Read?
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You may be infinitely smaller than some things, but you're infinitely
larger than others.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by khchung on Sunday June 15 2014, @05:56AM
I grew up spending hours each day, every day devouring books of all sorts. Is this a thing that's lost to people raised with Internet, Game Consoles, and Smartphones? Pardon me if I sound like an old fart.
I used to carry a book with me (along with a portable gaming console) everywhere I got, so I can read or play whenever I have to wait -- on the train/subway, waiting for my table at lunch, etc. And there was always the problem when I finished that book on the road, I have no other books to read until I happened to pass by a bookstore, or until I got home. So sometimes I even brought 2 books when I was nearly finished with the first.
Now, I have the Kindle app on my phone, and I can read everywhere without having to carry the weight of the book I happened to be reading (which is quite heavy if that happened to be hardback edition). I can buy another book and start reading right away even when I am on the road. When I am home, I can open the Kindle app on my PC and continue from where I was on the phone, then the next day I can pick up on the phone similarly. These are possible because all my devices are "always on".
What I find is now I read more books than I ever could before there is the Kindle.
Yes, I know many people find Amazon's business distasteful and refuse to buy a Kindle, and refuse to "buy" books that they don't really "own". But if all you care is to *read*, and don't care as much about having a physical book to store in the basement afterwards, then getting the Kindle app on your phone will let you read.
So, no, my experience is just the opposite, "always on" tech let me read even more books that before.
(Score: 1) by fido_dogstoyevsky on Sunday June 15 2014, @01:36PM
Fixed that for you.
* And using a still functional public domain (eg Project Gutenberg, manybooks.net etc).
It's NOT a conspiracy... it's a plot.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by khchung on Monday June 16 2014, @03:40AM
Do you know why I recommended a Kindle instead of all other kinds of free ebook readers? Cuz I tried them before and, for some strange reason, I read a *lot* more on Kindle (the app, not the device), and only on Kindle.
I tried to put stuff to read on a Palm V (anyone remember Advantgo which can pull websites and sync to the Palm? I probably misspelled it anyway), I downloaded free books into the reader app there also. I finished maybe 10 books with it, in all the years that I owned it, while still carrying physical books around.
Similar experiences on all similar PDA devices all the way to my current phone (I got reader apps on my phone), but none let me change my habit of carrying a book around until Kindle.
What makes Kindle work for me? I can't say for sure, but convenience is definitely a major factor. First is the ability to sync where I was across all devices, and the second is the huge selection available from Amazon. Yes, I know project Gutenberg have lots of books, but being able to see a book mentioned (on websites, on billboards, or anywhere) and found that Amazon has a Kindle edition most of the time, and I can have it *right away* (for a price) is a very convenient.