eBook Reading and Print Book Reading: more and more like Apples and Oranges in comparison
With reading on my iPad, I am really digging it for non-fiction texts because often when I read NF, thoughts bubble up of people with whom I would like to share a thought, idea and so on.
The iPad makes it a one device “bounce over, shoot a quick email, copy and paste passages if I’d like, and then right back to my book” experience.
I love that.( Cause, like I said, when I read NF, I seem to think of other people to whom I’d like to share/connect these ideas to which I am being exposed.)
That’s an unexpected treat for me.
With fiction reading I rarely do that. I am far too immersed in the characters, story, narrative and so on.
NF though is about ideas – and since it taps a different part of my brain, I guess it also taps a different way that I process the information… and want – or do not want – to share it.
More and more ereading and print book reading are becoming apples and oranges.
eReading provides things like video embedded text, hyperlinking, ADD style reading (whereby, I read, check my email, read some more, check a sports score, read some more, buzz in on the news, read some more and so on.)
Print book reading is singular and if I want to multi-task, I need to put my book down.
Fiction doesn’t seem to trigger in me the desire to put my book down to do other things nearly as much as NF does.
Hmm… it’s interesting now that I think about it.
Either way, to remove judgement about either of these two means of reading seems like the best approach to me. One is not necessarily better than the other. (For a skilled reader, that is. For a kid with low literacy skills, learning to concentrate and focus and hold one’s attention for long stretches of time appears very critical to me… I am not willing to throw that skill under the bus for young adults at all! But does it have to be a printed book? Well, it certainly removes the temptation to use the “device” to bounce on over to something else if the device – by that I mean, the book – doesn’t offer any “bounce on over to” function. )
The world is changing right under our eyeballs. Of that there is no doubt.