[Hampshire Nanny]

Originally Posted by wawasteele

There has been a lot of "team or group" talk in this thread. I was lousy at any type of sports, even team type of sports. If my team won, I sure didn't help them to win and everyone knew it! Being on the winning team didn't make me feel any type of accomplishment. It only made me relieved I hadn't caused them to lose. In academics I was better. If we teamed or grouped off, I knew I wouldn't ever cause a team to fail, but we all knew the kids who would. In my adult like, I personally hate being on a team of any kind, even playing cards.

What I don't like about "teams" at work is that everyone is evaluated on the team's results, regardless of how much or little they contributed. I want to be measured on my own effort, output, work product, or whatever it is that they are asking us to produce.

Originally Posted by Sregener

This is an area in which studies need to be done over an extended period of time with a large sample size. Questions that need to get asked are things like the following:

- What is the average reading speed on paper, eInk and LCD?
- How much information is immediately retained?
- How much information is retained in long-term memory?
- How easily can a reader find information in a text they previously read, weeks, months or even years later?

AFAIK, these studies have not been attempted in any scientific manner. Until they are done, we simply don't know if reading is superior when it is done on paper. I can think of reasons why it might be, and reasons why it wouldn't be.

Originally Posted by Sregener

Because, as others have pointed out, reading is a means to an end. It'd be like a debate over whether plowing your fields leads to better yields or not. "Why not just be happy people are planting?" If people read slower, retain less, and are not able to find things later, then their reading time is not being used as productively as it could be.

---- snip ----

I don't have an axe to grind, but I do wonder what the answers are to my listed questions. And I'm afraid we'll have to wait a long time to get those answers, and by then the new technology will be entrenched, even if it is proven to be inferior.

What about reading simply for entertainment? I read 100+ books a year. At the end of the year, I can look back at the list of books which I read and for most of them, the only thing I can tell you about it is whether I enjoyed it or not. A cozy mystery is like an episode of "Murder She Wrote" -- there's no point at all in trying to retain *anything* from it at all.

Originally Posted by speakingtohe

I can't see how reading electronically can be overall inferior. Possible retention and other advantages to paper are, for me, at least equalled by advantages like availability and convenience.

I can't see that retention is in any way affected by the medium -- eBook versus paper. While I'm primarily a recreational reader, what matters to me is the story. I borrow from the library, buy used books, swap with friends, and buy electronic books. I also obtain audio books by the same means -- from the library, from friends, CDs in cardboard boxes, and downloadable versions.

Originally Posted by Sregener

OTOH, if they're able to read more often, they may consume more books. Audiobooks are waaaaay slower than printed books, but my kids have heard many books simply because we listen in the car on the way to-and-from town. It's not the same as reading them, but it's probably been better for them than constantly staring out the window or fighting over who's foot is on the wrong side.

For children, an audiobook falls into the same category as a parent or teacher reading aloud to them. Maybe better since the reader is a professional, and some audiobooks -- especially for kids -- now have multiple readers so that the characters are more easily distinguished.

One thing that I have discovered is that if I start a series by listening to the audiobook, I want to continue it in the same format. Likewise, if I start reading the text (paper or electronic), then I want to continue that way. So far, I've listened to the first 6 books in Alexander McCall Smith's 44 Scotland Street series and I have ordered books 7 and 8 from a UK seller since they are not {yet} available in the US. The print books are available, but I simply prefer the unabridged audio. I'm eagerly awaiting the newest in his Number 1 Ladies' Detective Agency, which will be released in November and which I'll order for Kindle (or perhaps just borrow from the library).