Enjoying a book is a two part process.
The first involves the book as a physical object – a rectangular brick of paper with, one hopes, a nicely designed jacket. The colourful cover art catches the eye. The intriguing title captures the imagination. The size gives an approximation of its length, and the time it will take to read it.
The second involves the actual reading. Eyes fix on the text and methodically moving down the page, left to right, one line at a time. The book itself all but disappears. Attention is not with the physical object of the book, but with the story being told.
For the past two weeks I have forsaken good old-fashioned bound paper books. Instead, I have been reading exclusively on a Kindle 2, the popular e-reader from Amazon.
The first half of the book experience – the physicality of the book – is entirely lost on the Kindle. Hundreds of pages are reduced to a single digital file. Hefty hardcovers are replaced by an inelegant plastic device. Page turning is instead a series of cumbersome clicks.
But most of the time we spend enjoying books is time spent reading. And in this, e-readers excel.
The first book I chose to read on the Kindle was The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, a mystery by the late Stieg Larsson. I had seen the hardcover version, and instantly missed its bright lime-green jacket when I downloaded it to my Kindle. Instead, the vibrant cover was reduced to an undistinguished grayscale image.
With a few clicks, however, I was past the title page, advancing through the prologue and well into the first chapter. Immediately I was struck by how fast I seemed to be reading.
Some of this is attributable to a trick of the eye. Fewer characters fit on a Kindle screen than on the page of a book, so I was forced to advance the text quite often.
But the momentum was self reinforcing, too. Even if this wasn’t a “page turner”, I was turning the pages quite quickly. Completing each screen was a satisfying accomplishment in its own right, and I found myself wanting to read just a few more paragraphs.
I also found myself reading more often. Waiting for the train, in between chores, or for a few minutes after a meal, I was less hesitant to open up the Kindle and pick up where I left off.
Part of this is due to the Kindle’s convenient form. It is thin, and no bigger than your average paperback.
But soon I realised that I was reading more often for another reason. Since getting my first iPhone two years ago, I have grown accustomed to regularly whipping out my smartphone and spending a few minutes checking email or surfing the web.
That behaviour has carried over to my relationship with the e-reader. Whereas before I approached reading a book as a lengthy endeavor, something I would do for 20 minutes or an hour, with the Kindle I found myself comfortable reading in 5 minute increments.
The e-readers on the market today have plenty of flaws. They are single-function devices without much versatility. Their screens are small, lifeless and dull gray. Their user interfaces are clunky. Navigating back a few chapters is not nearly so simple as thumbing through the pages. Nor is it easy to peek ahead to see how much longer it is until the chapter is over.
Despite these failings, I found it surprisingly easy to adapt to the Kindle 2. Reading The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo was a breeze. There are other benefits to e-readers, as well, most notably the ability to store hundreds of books on a single device, and to download new content wirelessly from around the globe.
Digital reading is here to stay. While today’s e-readers may be primitive, new ones will inevitably improve upon this experience, bringing colour and better navigation to digital reading.
These will be welcome developments. But a future without real, physical books is not one I want to inhabit. While e-readers make reading convenient, they only capture half the magic. Without printed books, book design – a wonderful and underappreciated art – would be done for. The intoxicating smell of paper fresh from the presses would be lost to history. The walls of countless rooms would be barren.
Of course, digital reading is not an all or nothing proposition. E-readers and bound books will likely coexist for decades to come. Just as digital music has not totally abolished CDs and LPs, e-books will not do away with paperbacks and hardcovers. They may one day be relegated to novelty status, but probably not the trash heap.
For today’s frequent travelers and commuters, e-readers already make plenty of sense. As the devices improve, adoption will pick up. The Kindle 2 has already won me over. As I get ready to travel for the holidays, I’ll be downloading a handful of books to read as I hop from city to city.
But when I get home from my travels and unpack my bags, you can bet that I’ll be finding a spot next to the fireplace, putting my feet up and cracking open the new, heavy hardbound copy of the second novel in Stieg Larsson’s series, The Girl Who Played with Fire.
