Cory D: 'Novels aren't screeny enough to warrant protracted, regular reading on screens'

Well, I thought Cory had a lot of good points how we’ll be reading off screens — it just won’t necessarily be novels.

But I read “Down and Out in the Magic Kindom” and “Eastern Standard Tribe” on my PDA.

One thing I’ve noticed when reading PDA novels is I’m very comfortable reading in snippets hear and there (a la Youtube) whereas with a paper book I really want to be able to sit down and read 100 pages at a time.

In general I find Mr. Doctorow’s articles enlightening and useful, but this one struck me as quite off the mark in 2 respects, the opera analogy with novels which is absurd since there never was a time when opera was a mass phenomenon with milions of people watching it, and the fact that novels are not “screeny”.

It’s true that that they are not suitable for pc/laptops reading for various reasons (wrong screen orientation, background noise, bad position for reader), but once you have a book reader you like (and now there are more choices then ever with Sony, Ebookwise, Nokia770, various Palms/Pocket Pc’s, Pepper Pad…) it’s quite comfortable to read from them for long stretches at a time. And technology is going only to get better, so I expect more e-reading devices to come.

Of course print is not going to dissapear, but I am convinced that more and more reading is going to be done on a screen and when a true “infopad” will appear at affordable prices a lot of people will start digital reading on the go, the way they do e-mail, music, IM and so on these days.

I totally agree with Liviu’s comments. There is always an inertia to new technologies, just look at the change from 8mm film to video and mp3 music. As this inertia falls away and the ebook reader technology becomes better then more readers will appreciate the convienience of ebooks. Of course ‘paper’ will not go away and nobody wants that, I love my ‘real’ bookshelf and quite often after reading an ebook, go out and buy the ‘real’ thing for the shelf. I run Adult eBook Shop, an erotic site. and we get visitors from all 5 continents including people in Tibet and Iceland so there is a great interest out there. Only time will tell but there is room for both the traditional and new to sit side by side and compliment each other. Long live the written word.

Reading a novel on my laptop screen? No thanks. Reading a novel on a PDA? Eh, rather not. Reading an ebook on my Nintendo DS? Marginally better. (Yes, there are devices that make that ebook reading on the DS possible, and it’s not bad). Reading on my old RCA REB-1100? Couldn’t go a night without it.

It’s all about the device.

I think Cory has a strike and a home run here in his article. First the strike–that novels can’t be read on the screen. Uh, yes they can as a number of the other comments point out. As I read on both PDA (handy for carrying in my pocket and for those–I have three minutes before my next meeting moments) and eBookWise (for reading on the train, in bed, or where I’m going to be reading for a while), I truly think it’s a matter of ‘try it, you’ll like it.’

The home run–that the tremendous increase in entertainment options, coupled with the multitasking everyone seems intent on, does make novel reading harder. Anyone notice novels are getting shorter (JK Rowling and Terry Goodkind notwithstanding)?

I think this is one reason why anthologies seem to be popular these days.

Rob Preece
Publisher, http://www.BooksForABuck.com

P.S., I don’t think this is a good thing, but I think Cory is right in noticing it.

“I think Cory has a strike and a home run here in his article. First the strike–that novels can’t be read on the screen.”

Cory Doctorow states nowhere in the article that novels cannot be read from the screen.