Tuesday, December 16, 2008

I guess that's us ...

... People of the Screen. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)

Although mildly disorienting at first, I quickly adjusted to the Kindle’s screen and mastered the scroll and page-turn buttons. Nevertheless, my eyes were restless and jumped around as they do when I try to read for a sustained time on the computer. Distractions abounded. I looked up Dickens on Wikipedia, then jumped straight down the Internet rabbit hole following a link about a Dickens short story, “Mugby Junction.” Twenty minutes later I still hadn’t returned to my reading of Nickleby on the Kindle. I found that despite the ability to change the font size and scroll up and down the screen, reading was much slower on the Kindle than in book form. I’d want it on a long trip, but not for everyday use.


I am about to curl up with my Kindle and finish reading Sebastian Barry's The Secret Scripture. I dowloaded it to my Kindle because that was the quickest way to get it - and it was less expensive. I don't find reading on the Kindle any slower, and I don't find myself looking things up or getting otherwise distracted. I think people who read a lot of books have always been in the minority - a large minority, but a minority nonetheless - and always will be. Think back to when you were in high school: How many of your classmates were avid readers?

2 comments:

  1. I so very much want a Kindle. I would have gotten one when it first came out, but I wanted to make sure all the bugs were worked out before I did. But after reading about how much you're enjoying it, I might just have to get one for myself, though I hear it's on backorder on Amazon.com. With my commute now, I read about two books a week (though only on the train -- too tired to read when I get home).

    As for your question, I think I was the resident bookworm in my high school. Maybe bookworm's not the right term, though. If it had words, I read it, whether it was a novel or a cereal box. No wonder my eyes are so bad!

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  2. Hi Christine,
    I'm like you: I read anything within reach. My stepdaughter once remarked when we were out on a drive together, "My God, Frank, you're editing the billboards!" I can't blame my bad eyes on that, though. They come from sledding into a telephone pole at age 5.

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