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Tag: reading

Generation e

January 17, 2014 /

When I started collecting books many many moons ago, I always imagined passing them down to my kids to read and enjoy. Books were, and still are, among my most prized personal possessions. And perhaps if I had been born a century or two earlier, this scenario would have played out as planned. Instead, as I dust old bookcases and somberly place books into storage, I realize that this generation has no interest in printed books. They still read, perhaps more than ever, just not from ink on a page.

I can’t feign complete surprise that my children don’t share my love for the printed page. After all, I myself have all but given them up in favor of eBooks. Still, print holds some power for me, even if it is mostly that of nostalgia.

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The Balkanization Of Reading

September 3, 2011 /

I finally bought a Kindle this week. I ran into some issues publishing The Great Robot Adventure that could only be fully addressed with the actual hardware in hand. I’m happy to say that the issues have been resolved and the new book is now on sale for Kindle, Nook, and iPad.

My New KindleAt this point, I now have 5 electronic devices on which I can read eBooks. This was certainly not my intent. Ideally, I’d like to be able to read all of my eBooks on a single device, but this will remain only a dream and not something that most people will be able to experience in practice. There are too many strong commercial interests conspiring against one eReader to rule them all.

Right now the iPad comes closest to my ideal universal eReader. It’s perfect for digital comics and manga, and okay for plain text in low light situations where screen glare is not an issue. The iPad has reader apps for all of the major eBook sellers, but recent changes to Apple’s in-app purchasing rules are threatening to bring these apps to an end. While Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and others have modified their apps to remove book purchasing links, the Financial Times pulled their app altogether. The Financial Times has replaced their app with an iPad/tablet optimized web site. Amazon has also launched such a site as their Kindle Cloud Reader.

Outside of multipurpose tablets and personal computers, the eReaders fall short simply because all titles are not available on all platforms. The popular ePub format goes a long way towards making this possible, but Amazon does not directly support it on the Kindle. And even if they did, competing DRM schemes would still stand in the way.

At the end of the day, it is not unusual now to find a stack of eReaders, an iPad, and my iPhone piled up next to my MacBook. And of course I still do a lot of reading the old fashioned way in printed books! I think this Balkanization of reading is unavoidable, but as our reading devices continue to get thinner and lighter, it may not be such a bad thing.

Thanks to this competition, stuffing a Nook, Kindle, and iPad into my messenger bag is still less weight than I typically had to carry in college. And I still have room for a printed manga or two!

Parallel Reading With The Kids

April 12, 2011 /

Gothic Charm SchoolMost parents read a lot of books to their kids when they’re young, before they can read for themselves. In due time, children grow and begin reading on their own.  And somewhere along the way, children begin reading books that their parents have not.

Most of us are pretty busy once kids come along regardless of whether we work in or outside of the home. Trying to do all of the things that support a household doesn’t leave a lot of time to vicariously attend school with our kids by reading their books. And the reality of sharing a physical book means that we won’t get a shot at it until they’ve finished it and moved on and perhaps lost interest.

As I’m already under orders not to add any more stuff to our cluttered abode, having multiple copies of physical books isn’t acceptable either, not to mention the expense. Given these challenges, I hadn’t thought much about solutions until I happened upon Gothic Charm School. I found it discounted at my local Borders store closing sale and thought my goth inclined daughter would like it. And flipping through the pages I thought I’d enjoy it as well, so later I bought an eBook version of it to read on my Nook. The eBook wasn’t very expensive and, of course, took up no more space in my house!

The GiverSince that time, I’ve added The Giver and Masters of Doom to my parallel reads. It’s really been quite enjoyable having something common and interesting to share with the kids. Not only that, I feel like new life has been breathed into my own ongoing education.

Even with the added expense, I would encourage all parents to parallel read with their kids. eReaders and a growing library of eBooks have made this easier than ever before. And just imagine the look of shock on your child’s face when you threaten to release them if they don’t clean up their room! (Just kidding of course. Release is not something to joke about!)

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