Book v Kindle v Ipad
Books are a massive part of my life. So the advent of electronic books has caused me to experience more than a little consternation. Trying to imagine life without a book in the traditional sense is like trying to imagine life without a head. Impossible. Yet at the same time, it’s incredibly exciting – how cool and convenient it would be to carry around all the books you’ve ever read on one handy little electronic device. The main problem for developers of course, as traditionalists were keen to point out, is that an electronic book could never replicate the unique tactility of the printed version. Like a comfort blanket, you could cuddle up to it in bed and enjoy the leafy rustle as you eagerly turned the page (although if you’ve ever tried to read The Magus by John Fowles, you can forget the ‘eagerly’ part). But no. They were clever. e-Books now looked like the real thing too. Inexorably, the shadow of the executioner’s blade hovered ever closer to our dusty jacketed friend. But this week good old booky has been given a reprieve (albeit a temporary one). This report tested the book reading experience on the printed book, PC, iPad, and Kindle. The main conclusion was that ‘the iPad measured at 6.2% lower reading speed than the printed book, whereas the Kindle measured at 10.7% slower than print.’ All of which is great – faster is better when it comes to reading surely? Go Team Book! But more terrifying were the user comments at the end of the report: ‘Users felt that reading the printed book was more relaxing than using electronic devices. And they felt uncomfortable with the PC because it reminded them of work.’ Not that I’d ever read a book on a PC, but what an alarming thought. Reading is a method of escape. A gentle sojourn into your imagination that frees you from the cares of everyday life. Imagine if it felt like sitting down at your desk at 9am on a Monday! Also, relaxation is what makes reading so enjoyable – both mentally and physically. And one unarguable fact about the iPad is that it’s rather cumbersome, so reading in bed with it must be like snuggling up with a stone tablet. No matter. It can’t be long before we have a Terminator style iPad that morphs into whatever shape you want. So for now, feel free to wander down to your library, put on your smoking jacket, blow the dust from the cover of your favourite tome and settle into the chair in front of the hearth. And enjoy a moment of satisfaction as you know that you’ll be finishing ‘The Art of War’ much sooner than your Kindle-reading rivals.