"'Go-Green, use electronic media to read books'. I've been trying to implement this since long. It just doesn't seem to work. There is an intangible factor to reading from books which can just not be simulated on this screen. The screen is fine to read casual stuff like news articles, but when it comes to reading books and serious text, nothing matches the paper-back book."
If your experiences with reading have been similar, let us try to churn this new concept.
Some of the major reasons why reading on the screen is not as good are:
1) The disconnect between reader and the text comes from the vertical screen away from you and the third element (mouse) handling the way we read. In contrast, a reader is so very connected with the text when "handling" the book, and it makes it so very easy to learn new concepts and refresh/retain them!
2) You can't handle the pdf/doc the way you do your book. You can't underline, highlight, or scribble anywhere you wish on the e-document the way you do on your book.
3) Other handy facilities like placing bookmarks in the book and folding pages to refer back are so useful.
The good news is that the the signs of above said issues fading out have started coming. We have all the right hardware in place, but are perhaps waiting for the right software. The first problem cited above has been addressed by the likes of iPad, which allow a user to connect with the document as he holds it in his hand, flips pages using touch of his fingers. Still, the comfort zone is far from prevalant. Why?
A software that could allow users to read documents and underline/highlight/mark/scribble using a felt pen(very much a reality) and auto-save any changes made on the fly is just what we need. To all software developers this could sound like a trivial piece of software. Truly so, we really need a trivial simplistic solution. As said earlier, we have all the technology and hardware needed to achieve this; we are just waiting for the right initiatives from the software industry.
Being able to use electronic devices to read books and take notes just the way we've always used paper appears to be coming close. This article is an appeal to technology developers to take the necessary steps to create the needful and help penetrate the same to the masses.
Let's Go-Green!
Perhaps a Kindle would make an excellent B'day gift for you :)
ReplyDeleteGood point. Kindle is nice, but my urge to developers like you is to move beyond. I want to see e-reading as good as paper reading, and not clicking buttons to shift pages or more buttons to put in annotations(the way it works on kindle).
ReplyDeleteiPad I believe is the right hardware, someone please get the right software in. The hard task is done, lets use it at its least.
I agree that the disconnect between the reader and the text is so high, that you hardly remember anything in the book.
ReplyDeleteI was thinking of the amount of "knowledge base" I have managed to accumulate over years in the form of E-books !! The number is really atrocious..when I compare it to the actual E-books that I have read ! May be if I were to buy all the books rather than get it for freee through a friends pen drive, or system drive, or download it from the web, I may not have had those many books with me ! I guess I have done the "tough" part to collect almost every E-book available in my radar, have even burned disks to save them from crashes...and what more, have even installed some really kool e-book library software s' to read them ! Now its the easier part that's left...READING THEM atleast once in my lifetime !
This reminds of the very old logic my parents used to tell me about studies...unless you "write" the notes in your own hand-writing..it won;t enter ur brain ! Either the brain has to change to accept other mode of input, or there shud be some way for me to write the notes in the book...!
Till either one happens, I can continue with building my library...oops...i almost forgot to add that newly acquired pdf into my library :)
I think its not just about developing fancy readers with all facilities like bookmarking, notes, underline, highlights, etc...the things i don't like about these are,
ReplyDelete1> It emits light...which makes it difficult to face it continuously for couple of hours, where as books, u can read for days...
2> It emits heat...u can't hold it for so long...like reading while sleeping...
3> and other electronic requirements...like if i am taking a book to some remote trip, i hardly care about electricity or charging points, chargers etc...solar cells are still good options, but it has its own limitations...
Creating strings won't help unless you create a music out of it...