Quote:
Originally Posted by Hitch
Exactly. The idea of a blank line between paragraphs never even really appeared, in any recreational reading, prior to the advent of the web and the then-inability to create first-line indented paragraphs for reading. Only textbooks and that type of non-fiction material used white-space to indicate the change from one paragraph to another, primarily because said book would also include other formatting challenges (say, bulleted/numbered lists, charts, tables) that would look peculiar with the traditional first-line-indent paragraphy style.
I mean: just walk around your own bookshelves and pick up books at random and look at them. You will not, in fiction, see any--not one--that has white-space between paragraphs, or block-style. It's a massive waste of space (which is even more valuable on an e-reader) and increased printing costs. I've seen myriad complaints (and read them first-hand from people coming to us to "fix" books that they've self-pubbed) from readers with devices sending emails to Amazon, etc., about how much of their screen-space is wasted by block-style paragraphs for no reason. Smartphone and small tablet readers are particularly aggravated by this, it seems.
FWIW.
Hitch
|
Additional line spaces do increase paper use and cost in paper books. And it seems to me that a lot of people have issues with wasted screen space in ebooks. I probably have to make a few extra page turns due to my preference for no indents and spaces between paragraphs, but it is so very much easier for me to read that I don't care. One line more or one line less, and it could go either way because of the indents or lack of indents, is just another page turn every 20-30 pages. It is like font size. I read at what is the most comfortable size at the time, not on the smallest I can manage to read so as to get more characters on each page.
Helen