E-reading isn't reading?

[Solicitous]

He makes some very valid points. Now if you all don't mind I am going to go to the local picture theatre and see the news reel - cos sitting at home watching the telly isn't really watching.

[LovesMacs]

According to this article's logic, the main experience of driving would be touch.

[ucfgrad93]

Originally Posted by induna

What utter drivel!

Agreed. That was quite a load of crap.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by ucfgrad93

Agreed. That was quite a load of crap.

So according to the author, ever since the first medium was changed, we were never actually reading and have not since.

[Apache]

If it isn't written in stone it is not real.
Apache

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Apache

If it isn't written in stone it is not real.
Apache

Even God used stone. He hasn't used any other medium since.

[LovesMacs]

Originally Posted by Apache

If it isn't written in stone it is not real.
Apache

Imagine War and Peace carved in stone. You'd need much of a quarry to make a single copy.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by LovesMacs

Imagine War and Peace carved in stone. You'd need much of a quarry to make a single copy.

But stone is the only real way to read. This newfangled paper is just a poor experience. There's no smell of the stone and the feel of paper is just too light and smooth. It doesn't work.

[LovesMacs]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

But stone is the only real way to read. This newfangled paper is just a poor experience. There's no smell of the stone and the feel of paper is just too light and smooth. It doesn't work.

Yes, even hardcover printed books lack the heft and permanence that can come with only the best quality hewn stone tablets.


The original article has got to be satire.

[banjobama]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

But stone is the only real way to read. This newfangled paper is just a poor experience. There's no smell of the stone and the feel of paper is just too light and smooth. It doesn't work.

What about old Sears catalogs made from stone? You know what they used those for...

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by banjobama

What about old Sears catalogs made from stone? You know what they used those for...

Fred Flintstone had it good. He got to read a stone newspaper.

[Corkobo]

This is stupid:

How we hold our reading materials, how we look at them, navigate them, take notes on them, share them, play with them, even where we read them—these are the categories that have mattered most to us as readers throughout the long and varied history of reading. [my emphasis above]

Bypassing the immense arrogance and infantilism of Piper assuming that everybody shares his preference, (and not only everybody alive today but throughout history !?!?) he appears to have missed the point of reading which, for me at least, is to absorb information.
So, if Piper does not get the point of reading can he possibly get the point of writing?
It seems whoever paid him money for his article thinks so.

Funny, there is a thread here (http://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=191031) where people discuss the fact that a lot of user reviews one sees on the Web nowadays are useless drivel, off the topic and appears to be written by morons with a gripe.

So when I read articles like this one I conclude that stupidity is not restricted to amateurs.
And with such examples of "professionals" the normal user reviewing a book by saying "it's too expensive, I would like it for free" no longer seems so bad.

[miguel1626]

Disgusting drivel. I couldn't even finish the article, since the premise is so flawed. Come on, tactile experience is the point of reading? Then go read in Braille.

[Ekaros]

Reading? What is that... Unless you grunt out the message from memory and vary it every time it's not real communication. Words... when did we ever need those...

But hey atleast his text isn't real as it is on Internet

[sabredog]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

If we listen to this guy, then even paper books are not real reading as reading was originally on stone tablets.

Yep, my stone tablet edition of War and Peace has pride of place in the garden as part of the rockery.

I got about a third of the way through the article before realising I would rather watch paint dry.