Quote:
Originally Posted by Steve Jordan
It's not that it offends me. But to me, reading is reading. Not smelling or touching or hearing, just reading.
When I get into a story, it doesn't matter whether it is on paper or a screen, or whether I'm in front of a roaring fire or on a commuter train, day or night, the beach or the laundromat, summer or winter... I don't notice any of that stuff when I'm in the story.
To me, anyone who can only read when they are in a particular sensory environment... don't seem to be fully tuning into the story itself as much as they are tuning into (or failing to tune out) everything else around them. And I hope that doesn't offend any of you, that's just my feeling. Its not that they can only read that way, its the experience is more meaningful, and connected.
So when someone tells me they refuse to try an e-book, because they won't give up their sensory environment, I realize that we are not speaking about the same things. I am speaking about reading stories. They are speaking about a specific combination of sensory experiences that they collectively call "enjoying a good book," but which is not the same thing as "reading stories." Note that I am not criticizing what they do, just accepting that they are two different things.
I don't want to push e-books at someone who is more concerned about the comfort of their armchair or the sweetness of their tea, or how an electronic device might upset that delicate balance. I want to promote e-books to someone who appreciates the advantages of e-books to reading stories.
See, I figure e-books are an inevitability... sooner or later, most everyone will be using e-books of some kind or another. There's no point rushing everyone into it. So I just concentrate on the people who are likely to get something positive out of the experience now, and let the big marketers worry about how to swing the masses their way.
As someone who feels the drama and wonder of a book are the same whether it is on paper or a screen, I could never feel that way. Give me the stories, in any format, and we're good.
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Part of the joy of learning to read is the interaction with the colorful pages of juvenile books.
The more you can get a child to take an interest in what is being read to them, the easier and more enjoyable it is for them the learn to read.
Discussing what is happening on each page is essential to their comprehension and ability to understand the process.
You will never get that same 'wonder' learning to read on an e-book device.
Pop up books, (have you seen some of those lately? Very detailed), fuzzy books, those huge coffee table books, atlases, how do you replicate those on a device?