A friend of mine covets the Sony Reader. Basically, a hand held electronic storage device with the capability of holding about 80 books on it's memory card, displaying them on a scrolling screen for reading pleasure.
While I am a total junkie for new toys, and readilly admit to this, the Reader is one device that passes me by. I just don't get it.
I don't get the same innate pleasure from reading words on a computer screen. The texture, the smell, the experience of a book in my hands cannot be duplicated in the digital format.
Google news (customized) is my homepage. I spend the first hour of every morning skimming news articles.
I also read one print paper every day, and about three days a week, another print newspaper as well.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not knocking digital media in any way. 99% of my job is carried out through the internet.
I check online for movie tickets, travel bookings, first stop for any research, for directions and maps, for phone numbers, I check ebay for an estimate of cost before buying pretty much anything of value.
But I love my books and newspapers. The internet is convenient, and versatile, and able to keep up with my 2 second attention span, and my need for info NOW. And that is alot of "ands".
But I hope it never completely replaces print media. Reading books in digital format is only half an experience for me. And nothing can replace my leisurely saturday morning coffee and newspaper ritual.
4 comments:
I don't just covet books, I need books. When I am confronted with something I have to read for either pleasure or school, I print it out to read it. Yes, my news searches are a result of the internet,and a large ppoint of my real world readin happens online, but anytime I have an article I need ot read for class, or a book I want to read for me, the answer is not digital, it is physical. I like holding books in my hand, I like being able to drag a highlighter over a piece of text in an article. I will always live in the paper world, the digital supplements it but will never replace it
ps. typos due to drunkeness
Have you checked out LibraryThing yet?
started the library under the name davonshire but don;t have time to sit down and add them all =) will do bits and pieces as I can
miss you
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