[LINK] The once and future e-book: on reading in the digital age

[Ivan Trundle]

On 05/02/2009, at 10:33 AM, Michael Skeggs mike at bystander.net wrote:

> On 05/02/2009, Ivan Trundle <ivan at itrundle.com> wrote:
> one that is as enjoyable as a real book. As much as I try, there isn't
> enough contextual information for me to absorb the details of the  
> story.
>
> I'm not sure I understand what context a printed page gives that a  
> screen displaying the same text doesn't. Maybe an indication of how  
> far you have progressed? My reader has a % bar at the bottom that  
> shows this.

This might have been done to death before, but when I mean 'context',  
I mean the entire appreciation of the book. I'm sure that over time %  
bars and the like will be more visual, and more akin to real books,  
but it's the whole picture, such as being able to keep your fingers in  
the previous chapter or a previous page to refer to on the fly (such  
as when a new character pops up, and you need a reminder about that  
person). And much more: such as a visual clue as to how big the tome  
is in the first place: the Conrad books that I purchased for my phone  
give no indication that they are novels, short stories, or whatever.  
It's all to do with the overall tactile frame of reference - which  
matters to me more than knowing how many books I have in my library,  
or whatever.

Contextual information also includes jacket covers and fly leafs, and  
the placement of images in certain places which can easily be referred  
to either to glance at, or absorb over time. to date, no e-book comes  
remotely close to offering all of these features, though I know that  
one day someone will claim that they have achieved this and make  
millions.

Beyond this, I also dislike having to buy a gadget to read: there are  
enough books in circulation (ignoring current publishing efforts) to  
keep me busy for a long time to come, and I believe that my  
environmental footprint will be much smaller by choosing to NOT buy a  
dedicated book 'reader', with the accompanying development costs,  
environmental costs, energy costs, and disposal costs.

iT

--
Ivan Trundle
http://itrundle.com ivan at itrundle.com
ph: +61 (0)418 244 259 fx: +61 (0)2 6286 8742 skype: callto://ivanovitchk