Reading vs E-Reading

Today is one of those Other Musings kind of days.

   This entry was originally a response to a post my friend Tim made on Facebook. He refers to an article in Slate Magazine written by Andrew Piper called Out of Touch: E-Reading isn't reading. In his Facebook post, Tim asks the questions, does anyone want to share their own experience of switching to digital? Is the experience different? Don't you miss holding the book and turning the page?

Here is my answer, plus a few other points.

I read and like both. For me, it's more an addition of digital than a switch to digital. It's about the story, not the vessel where it resides.

   About the article, Piper makes a nice descriptive argument and proves that he's well read, but as well written as the article is, his argument doesn't hold water. He also doesn't face the fact that e-books are here to stay. Besides, the kind of Kindle reader he describes, where you have to press buttons to turn a page, matches my mom's early generation Kindle, which is now obsolete.

   More authors are going the e-book route, including Stephen King, John Grisham, and James Patterson, among others. I wrote and published my e-book of short stories The Acts of 1 and other soon to be published work, specifically targeting those readers. On the business end, it takes the middleman out of the picture and puts the writer in control.

   Tapping a screen to turn a page and actually turning a page, although enjoyable, don't make the experience worthwhile. However, one point where I agree with Piper is that sometimes it's preferable to turn an actual page than to press a button or tap the screen. On a Kindle, sometimes you can tap the screen to go to the next page and get the previous page by accident. It doesn't always happen, but it's annoying when it does. As far as missing the experience of turning a page while e-reading, it's the same when missing the experience of tapping a screen while reading a regular book. The answer is no, since I do both now.

   The point is, there is no reading vs e-reading, because e-reading IS reading. So what makes the experience of reading a story great? It's not the paper or the machine. It's a team effort. It's the author's ability to write a good story and the reader's ability to take ownership of it and the characters, and live in that world for a while. That's the magic of reading.

Thank you, Tim, for coming up with a great topic of discussion!