Quote:
Originally Posted by Barty
I do think pbook have some advantageous characteristics. Easier to flip back and forth through pages. You build a mental map of where certain things are and you can flip to them by feel and visual scanning.
|
I think the (geographical page) mental map is hugely important for some of us, not just for finding where things are, but because building it acts as another memory aid.
From reading others' comments, it seems like this memory-aid aspect of the mental map creation works just for some, possibly a small minority. For me, when I recall passages of pbooks, I can usually visualize where on the page those passages can be found. I don't seem to recall passages as well when reading ebooks.
My guess is that the mental maps are particularly formed when picking up from where I left off (I'm a slow reader, probably doing a lot of daydreaming and restarting), and when re-reading/re-scanning the page. Doing the same tasks in ebooks feels slightly disorienting because I don't know where to look on the page. This disorientation may be simply due to expectations from years of reading pbooks. But so far, it's resulted in me
seemingly (can't be sure) remembering less of what I read in ebooks.
I'm currently re-reading "The Sports Gene," but this time in ebook form, and it's very disorienting that I can't find the passages where they were, but instead they're just floating up sequentially on my screen.