What's more important, the book or the story?

[LDBoblo]

Originally Posted by Penforhire

Formats can be a big turnoff. I read plenty of paper books whose font choice or print quality made my eyes bleed. It was hard to enjoy the content under those conditions. I do not make the same claim of duress when using current e-ink based e-readers. In my experience the e-reader itself disappears when I read good content.

Interestingly, almost all ebooks make my eyes bleed.

[calvin-c]

Originally Posted by Steve Jordan

I don't have a problem answering this. I just ask myself (and anyone in earshot) what you get when you take the ink out of a book. Then I ask again what's more important, the book or the content?

The content is more important than the book, just as it's more important than the e-book reader, the TV screen, or the actor's voice... without content, all of them are empty. But without one or all of them, the content can be expressed somewhere else, even if it's just written in the sand at low tide.

Yet, Marshall McLuhan said "the medium is the message". Not that I think he was totally right, but I do think he had a point. Some content is meaningful only when it's presented in the right way. That content (which I could give examples of, but not fully define-for me it includes plays & poetry, which leave me cold when I read them) requires the proper medium so, for that, the 'book' is more important. (OK, in the examples I can think of the proper medium isn't a book, and I might agree with you if we restrict ourselves to content which is meaningful when presented in a book, whether it be a treeBook or an eReader. Or I might not-I do better with examples so it would probably depend on what was chosen as an example.)

[Jack Tingle]

Interestingly enough, I prefer reading plays to watching them. As someone above said, "It isn't a zero sum game." Ahi and LDboblo can have gorgeously laid out treebooks, and I can have "Our Town" or "The Tempest" in plain text on an LCD screen.

Regards,
Jack Tingle

[Steven Lyle Jordan]

Originally Posted by calvin-c

Some content is meaningful only when it's presented in the right way...

My only comment to that is that "the right way" may not be the same way for everyone. A blind man can't get much from a printed page, for instance. A sighted man who can't read Braille won't get out of a text what a blind man who can read Braille will get.

[dmaul1114]

Taking it in that sense, of course the content matters.

But the fact of the matter is for most things text is text. I prefer an e-book if it's something I'm only going to read once as it's not a waste of space (or hassle with the library etc.).

But for academic stuff, I prefer paper as I need to be able to quickly highlight and annotate so I never have to read it twice and can just flip through and look at highlights and notes when referencing it in the future.

So it depends on what I'm doing with the content as to what format I prefer the content in.

So it's good that it's not a zero sum game and there's not reason not to have books, articles etc. in multiple e and print formats.

[=X=]

... or maybe it's just me.


For me it's all about content. It's about getting what is written form into the brain end of story.

How it's delivered is only relevant for the individual who consumes the content/story. And for me the mecanism that transfers this data in the highest rate is the best method. Be it a paper book or electronic book.

What is amazing is many business don't understand this. In the book industry it is all about content. Amazon gets this and that is why the focus on the best experience. However many other just seem to focus on the latest gadget and features that do not directly

That is why I'm such a fan of ebooks they accelerate the process of transferring the written knowledge to my brain.

For instance eBooks must be read using software they offer huge advantages over paper books. One can listen to a lecture/story using TTS. Open multiple instances of a tech book to accelerate studying and referencing multiple sections of a book. With the right software highlighting and annotation can be made easily. eBooks done right can make use of crosslinks and references and have superb resolution.

=X=

[dmaul1114]

It's more hardware than software for highlighting and annotating (though software matters first).

It must be a stylus touch screen that's just easy to highlight and scribble notes in the margins as pen/highlighter and paper are for me to make the switch. If it's remotely less intuitive or more time consuming than pen/paper then I won't switch as time and efficiency is my only real concern with work related stuff.

[ahi]

Originally Posted by Steve Jordan

My only comment to that is that "the right way" may not be the same way for everyone. A blind man can't get much from a printed page, for instance. A sighted man who can't read Braille won't get out of a text what a blind man who can read Braille will get.

And a deaf and blind paraplegic is going to get nothing out of a fine Greek sculpture. Let's get rid of statues then, until they can be converted into sufficiently numerous and diverse formats to ensure that everybody and their mother-in-law can enjoy the hell out of them.

- Ahi