The Evolution of Reading In the Digital Age

Doofus writes "'Print is dying. Digital is surging. Everyone is confused.' is the subtitle of Craig Mod's thoughtful discussion aboutthe evolution of reading material from printed dead-tree to flowing digital content. I stumbled upon his blog post from a related NYTimes article, Former Book Designer Says Good Riddance to Print. He breaks reading material down into two basic categories: 'Formless,' in which the content and meaning of the writing has no dependency on presentation, and 'Definite,' in which layout and presentation play a role in conveying meaning. Mod makes the point that as digital presentation improves, devices such as the iPad will bring authors newer and improved platforms upon which to display Definite content. Despite this, he says, some works will be better consumed in physical print because 'They're books that embrace their physicality or have stood the test of time. They're the kinds of books the iPad can't displace because they're complete objects.'"

Re:Can't displace?

[Darkness404]

If cost came down sufficiently maybe I could end up stacking my e-books on the shelf beside the paper ones. "Buy the book and get a free, reusable e-book reader" isn't *that* far off, I think.

But that defeats the entire purpose of an e-reader. The point isn't to use e-ink and be all fancy but allow for one device that eliminates the eye strain of reading on an LCD, that can store lots of books and not take up lots of room and have great battery life. For example, when traveling rather than putting 4 paperbacks in a backpack, they can store one Kindle and have 200 novels in the same space.

Re:Problems....

[Darkness404]

Hm, perhaps your library situation is different then mine, but with mine I have access to about ~20 different libraries across the region, and if one library doesn't have the book, one of the 19 may have it and will get it to you in about a day. And while it isn't the best stocked library (in their entire system they had 3 books about the Welsh Language) for simi-recent books (~2000-2008) you can get any book within a day or so.

It also depends on what you are reading, for novels it is a lot easier to use the library then to pay $9 for a book that you are only going to read once. For a book you are going to read multiple times you have to pay $30 for a book without crappy binding. I simply don't have the money per enjoyment out of buying books. I read an interesting book (out of the library on the formation of the English language) but it took me only 2 days to read it, the book cost $14 if I would have bought it normally, making me pay $7 per day of reading, which is rather expensive.

Re:embrace their physicality?

[derGoldstein]

I'm rereading TFA, and it's really even more out-there than I thought initially. I thought he was using the "unusual formats" as a metaphor for something, but does he literally mean books with fold-out charts and translucent overlays? Is the point that primitive? Has he not met the computer? Hasn't he ever seen an interactive presentation? I don't even have to go looking for anything specific, just go to HowStuffWorks [howstuffworks.com] and pick something. Many Wikipedia articles will do the same thing, except with animations and videos instead of Flash. Isn't this [wikipedia.org] better than a pop-up book?

Re:Problems....

[Anonymous Coward]

Ah, hate to wake you up, but that already exists in most libraries that lend ebooks.

Most of the use Adobe Digital Editions, and the OverDrive servers, which assures that the library lends only as many copies as they have paid for, and ebooks are "returned" automatically at the end of the lend period.

Ebook readers already enforce the rules, and you can also read on your computer. Usually this all costs the reader zero money.

You have re-invented what is already in common usage all across north america.
http://www.adobe.com/products/digitaleditions/ [adobe.com]