Monday, January 11, 2010

BBC discusses our love of paper and not e-readers

The BBC has a great article on its website entitled Page-turning passion. The article discusses how many people have been saying 2010 will be the year of the e-reader.
Lisa Jardine looks at how users of paper books use the object and makes a very interesting point when she says:-

Gabriel Harvey sums up productive reading, in a neat black hand and with his usual practical-minded concision, in the margins of a fashionable contemporary manual on family conduct:

This whole book, written & printed, of continual and perpetual use: and therefore continually, and perpetually to be meditated, practised, and incorporated into my body, and soul. Better any one chapter, perfectly and thoroughly digested, for present practice, as occasion shall require: than a whole volume, greedily devoured, and rawly concocted."

And don't forget that critical ingredient for "continually and perpetually meditating and practising" on a book - the sharing of it with friends. Passing your online-purchased books to others is something few e-reader manufacturers are even prepared to consider.

No comments: