By: Radhika Nataraj

Radhika Nataraj — Wed, 29 Nov 2006 21:38:39 +0000

I am obsessed with the internet and am always on my computer (if I could browse the internet and drive without being dangerous, I would). However, I don’t think I would be able to read long texts online. First of all, it’s hard to underline and dog-ear. Second, when I read, unless I’m holding the book and I’m curled up on my sofa or my bed, it’s not a personal/emotional experience for me anymore. The books I own are very precious to me — I rarely even let others borrow them. Reading online not only hurts my eyes, but makes the act of reading somewhat impersonal (or at least it does for me).

By: Ed

Ed — Wed, 15 Nov 2006 20:05:57 +0000

Ms. Scarbary-
Like you, I love computers and the Internet. Also, I love to read. A few years ago, I thought that all of these passions would come together with the concept of electric books. I went online and soon I was downloading huge digital libraries and recommending websites like Project Gutenberg. After only a few months, I had acquired more e-texts than printed books. The next step was to purchase some kind of device to display the books I was downloading. This is where the dream began to fade. I read reviews and considered the options. Unfortunately, none of the devices I purchased lived up to expectations and I soon resigned myself to reading e-texts on the computer. This soon proved equally unmanageable. For a variety of reasons, reading a book on a computer screen causes great stress on the eyes. If you try it, you’ll find yourself wearing out quickly. In a last act of desperation, I starting printing out my e-texts and reading them like an ordinary book – this of course is ridiculous. The moral of the story is that until a new method of displaying electronic text is developed, digital texts remain limited. I still have the dream but the technology hasn’t arrived.

Comments on: How is a digital text creating a different meaning than print text?

By: Radhika Nataraj

By: Ed