[Steven Lyle Jordan]

Originally Posted by kfarmer

Readers have the consequence of removing a bunch of it, and homogenizing as much of the rest as possible. All your experiences are with the same unit (theoretically.. that's what Sony, etc would like to be the case), in the same quality, texture, smell, even typeface as everything else. There's little if any room for framing the art in any meaningful way.

Not so: Readers allow you to manipulate your content to improve your reading experience, for instance, by allowing you to select type sizes or light levels. Many of the devices or software readers (I use a few) allow you to select fonts, colors and even backgrounds... you can have lots of choices. I've seen plenty of books that had the wrong typeface used, or in the wrong size, or badly-printed and almost too light (or too thick) to read. With a paper book, you can't fix that. With a reader, you can.

And you can still select your reading location... just like with those smudgy paper thingies.

Originally Posted by kfarmer

I saw a real Van Gough on Monday. Taking a photo (had it been allowed) would not have given anything close to the visceral impact that seeing it, presented as it was, lit as it was, at the various distances I could observe it (from thank-god-for-glasses to you-can-count-the-hairs-of-the-brush).

I just looked at a Van Gough on my monitor. Looked pretty good! Unless they let you touch it, it doesn't matter much to me if you can make out individual hair strokes on a painting. I usually enjoy a painting by standing back from it and taking it all in, anyway!

Originally Posted by kfarmer

And I'm not saying otherwise. What I *am* saying is that that medium contributes greatly to the experience.

Read textbooks for content. For literature, the experience rules.

For literature, the content IS the experience. Everything else, especially the medium, is superfluous. The Three Musketeers isn't less of a classic because it's printed in a cheap paperback and read on a subway car. Great Expectations isn't great just because it's printed on fine stock and read in the Louvre. Content transcends delivery.