‘IPod’s Missed Manners’–and some e-book-related thoughts
George Will and others worry that we’re “entertaining ourselves into inanition” through such gadgets as iPods.
Could the above apply to e-books? As with the iPod, it depends on the content and the situation.
Is Dickens read in solitude the same as a junky novel read when you’re seated with family at a restaurant table? Used well, technology can enrich us. I’m reading better books since I went mainly electronic for my reading. The key is to know where to look online (Blackmask remains my favorite site for public-domain books, because of their availability in Mobipocket and other formats I use). Meanwhile see Sandi Ranson-Polizzotti’s essay Alice’s Adventures Underground on the Tungsten E.
Related: The Portable Harvard classics, in MobileRead. Classics site here.
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