 |
 |
 |
|
June 2011
|
What can’t an e-book do?Texture, scent and weight… it’s all about contact
Enter a new milestone for our digital age – the creation of the e-book. What is an e-book? Mark Lyndersay, writer, photographer and technophile cites what he calls a “very brief” definition by Wikipedia, “a book-length publication in digital form,” in his presentation at the first Bocas Lit Fest, Trinidad and Tobago’s annual literary festival. The festival took place this year, from April 28th to May 1st, at the National Library/Old Fire Station compound, and included readings by celebrated authors, performance poetry, panel and roundtable discussions, workshops, book signings and launches and storytelling sessions for children. Lyndersay joined fellow writers, Andre Bagoo, Elspeth Duncan and Georgia Popplewell, at a roundtable session titled Digital reading: the future of literature, which sought to discuss the influence of emerging technologies on the way we read and write. The biggest topic? The e-book. Characterized by its convenience – you can walk around with over 300 full-length novels in one sleek e-reading device as opposed to just one bulky novel and you can buy an e-book anytime, anywhere with an internet connection and the push of a button, click of a mouse or tap on a touch screen, instead of waiting until you get to a book store – is the e-book a threat to the courtship between a reader and her book? “Off course, there’s no romance to the experience,” Lyndersay states. “People who love books will do stuff like sniff the spine; gently fondle the texture of the paper. Well there’s none of that in an electronic book.” Additionally, it’s not enough to simply be interested in reading the book. With an e-book, the e-reading device is just as vital – the reader must choose one that matches her taste. While some may prefer a tablet, such as Amazon’s Kindle, Barnes & Noble’s Nook, or the iPad, Lyndersay prefers reading on smaller devices, so his iPhone is ideal for him. Another down side to e-books, he says, is that reading on a screen encourages “’satisficing’ … when most people look at a screen, they skim through it, find the stuff they’re interested in and move on and because we deal with screens like that all the time, it takes a long time for people to begin to read things off of a screen.” Yet, an avid e-book reader himself (he boasts a past reading list of over 500 e-books, including audio books and comics, since 2002), his list of advantages of the new digital craze is great. For instance, “you can read in odd places,” he says. “I read in lines … anywhere that I’m stuck where I have nothing to do.” Listening to an audio book while stuck in traffic is a calming experience, he says. Another benefit is that “it’s a way of bringing readers and authors together.” He explains that, since the process of creating an e-book is quite simple, authors can sell their digital publications at a minimal cost, or give them away for free. E-books also present an advantage to publishers since there’s no “back stock…no giant pile of paper that’s been printed on that you have to wait for somebody to buy.” Therefore, he continues, a book can never go out of print. Audience members also chime in with their own experiences with e-books. A teacher introduces the topic of how they can be used in the classroom. Since new entrants into our secondary schools are given their own laptop computers, she says, can’t they be equipped with e-books? Will the publishers of text books consider publishing them in digital format? Another assures that, for those readers who like to curl up with a book and a cup of tea and settle in for a nice read, an e-reading device is “just as curlupable.” So what’s the verdict? Book or e-book? “I’m not an e-book person,” says Duncan whose recently published novel, Daisy Chain, is currently available as an e-book. Popplewell raises her own e-reader to the audience, clad in a case designed to resemble a book cover. “The Kindle wins,” Lyndersay says, narrowing it down to his preferred e-reading device. I’m a book person, but I’m willing to put down my paperback for a couple weeks and try out an e-book. By Serah Acham |
I don’t think I’m an e-book person. I love books. I’m never without one. When I finish a book, I immediately go in search of a new one. As I spot the book I’m about to begin, I feel my senses ignite. The cover piques my curiosity – the colours, the images, the book’s name and author written in any of a variety of fonts, sometimes embossed, sometimes not. The thickness of the book further intrigues me – what kind of adventures lie in all those pages? When I pick up the book, its weight feels good in my hands. I open it and the scent of the paper takes me back to past escapades. I flip through and the texture of each page beneath my fingers makes me tingle with excitement. Within these pages lies my next adventure. All that’s left to do is sit back, crack it open and begin my journey. 