Thing 4: Reading on a Screen
This might seem like a weird one but I've had two separate run-ins recently, online and in person, with people who were dead set against ebooks and Kindles and other ereaders.
Now I write ebooks, and I believe strongly that ebooks and the digitalization of the publishing industry has done wonderful things for many authors. I also love paper books too though. In the room where I sit at this very moment every flat surface including the floor has paper books piled on it. I might make jokes about book sniffing and romanticizing the way books smell but truth be told I value the kinds of books you can hold in your hand extremely highly. I also love brick and mortar bookstores even the giant chain ones. Much like with libraries there is just something intrinsically wonderful to me about places designed around books and reading.
I think the people who are reluctant about ereaders are hesitant about change, or afraid of what it will do to an already struggling paper-book-producing-industry, or afraid of what it will do to brick and mortar bookstores and lots of other good reason.
Some people, I think though, are just not used to reading the majority of what they read from a screen. This would certainly not be all people who don't care for ereaders, but think about it, I bet this definitely is what makes it a hard switch for a bunch of people. I mean it would be weird and I probably wouldn't like going from reading off a paper page for X number of decades, with very little to no practice reading off a screen and then buying a Kindle and suddenly having to learn how to do it. Because it is a different kind of reading I think.
I don't want it to seem like only Luddites don't read off a screen because I know plenty of technology savvy people don't. My sister for instance uses her laptop dozens of times everyday, chats with people online, blogs, reads the news. Yet she hardly ever sits down and reads a couple hundred pages of fiction off the screen since she does most of her leisure reading via paper book still.
That's where I feel lucky in some regards because I've been reading a good portion of my reading material for years off of my computer screen. Unlike my sister I have read thousands of pages of fiction off a screen just scrolling through the bookmarks of one kinkmeme. Let alone the years and years of fanfiction and original fiction reading I've done via the web. So for me an ereader is just a smaller, more portable version of how I've already been doing a large portion of my reading anyway.
So what do you think? Did being involved in fandom mean more time spent reading from your computer screen? Did it help you transition to reading with a Kindle or other ereader?
Now I write ebooks, and I believe strongly that ebooks and the digitalization of the publishing industry has done wonderful things for many authors. I also love paper books too though. In the room where I sit at this very moment every flat surface including the floor has paper books piled on it. I might make jokes about book sniffing and romanticizing the way books smell but truth be told I value the kinds of books you can hold in your hand extremely highly. I also love brick and mortar bookstores even the giant chain ones. Much like with libraries there is just something intrinsically wonderful to me about places designed around books and reading.
I think the people who are reluctant about ereaders are hesitant about change, or afraid of what it will do to an already struggling paper-book-producing-industry, or afraid of what it will do to brick and mortar bookstores and lots of other good reason.
Some people, I think though, are just not used to reading the majority of what they read from a screen. This would certainly not be all people who don't care for ereaders, but think about it, I bet this definitely is what makes it a hard switch for a bunch of people. I mean it would be weird and I probably wouldn't like going from reading off a paper page for X number of decades, with very little to no practice reading off a screen and then buying a Kindle and suddenly having to learn how to do it. Because it is a different kind of reading I think.
I don't want it to seem like only Luddites don't read off a screen because I know plenty of technology savvy people don't. My sister for instance uses her laptop dozens of times everyday, chats with people online, blogs, reads the news. Yet she hardly ever sits down and reads a couple hundred pages of fiction off the screen since she does most of her leisure reading via paper book still.
That's where I feel lucky in some regards because I've been reading a good portion of my reading material for years off of my computer screen. Unlike my sister I have read thousands of pages of fiction off a screen just scrolling through the bookmarks of one kinkmeme. Let alone the years and years of fanfiction and original fiction reading I've done via the web. So for me an ereader is just a smaller, more portable version of how I've already been doing a large portion of my reading anyway.
So what do you think? Did being involved in fandom mean more time spent reading from your computer screen? Did it help you transition to reading with a Kindle or other ereader?