With Amazon’s introduction of the Kindle worldwide last October and the looming release of Apple’s iPad on April 3, the book industry could be facing rapid changes.
Many people are asking whether they’ll lose anything transitioning from physical, tangible text to the electronic screen as our primary method of reading.
Apple co-founder and CEO Steve Jobs would likely answer with a resounding no.
“What the iPad does is extraordinary,” Jobs said at a keynote speech in February. “It is the best browsing experience you’ve ever had. It’s phenomenal to see a whole webpage infront of you that you can manipulate with your fingers.” Weighing in at a miniscule 0.68 kg and only half an inch wide, the iPad has the sleek and sexy panache of all of Apple’s products, venturing into the unexplored territory between the smartphone and laptop.
“Amazon’s done a great job of pioneering this functionality,” Jobs said. “And we’re going to stand on their shoulder with the iPad.” Apple has introduced a new iBooks app to go along with the iPad.
The e-book is just one component of the app sanctuary that is the iPad. Amazon’s Kindle, on the other hand, is specifically designed to reflect the shape of an actual book.
Amazon first introduced the Kindle in late 2007 and was virtually out of stock for the five following months. Its success continued with 1.5 million units sold in more than 100 countries worldwide to date.
There has been some collaboration between Apple and Amazon in marketing and delivering their products to the public. In March of 2009, Amazon introduced a Kindle app available on the iPhone, allowing s to read their Kindle content on their Apple devices.
Both units, though, run into cost problems. The Kindle has recently dropped in price, but still sits at an uncomfortable $259. Apple’s iPad starts at $499.
Queen’s Research Chair and English professor Frederick Lock said although there are benefits to the e-reader in of the ability to easily access many titles, he prefers physical books because they encourage focused reading.
“The availability of hundreds of thousands of titles seems to encourage non-continuous reading, whereas if you’re under a tree with one title you know that you’ve chosen it out of a range of titles that were available to you,” Lock said.
Devices such as the Kindle and the iPad, however, could very well be used as accessories to formal literary criticism, rather than being the main focus for it, he said.
“I am certainly not opposed to the idea of these devices, but these things are in their early days,” Lock said.
Lock said new technology is prone to initial skepticism. Reliance on the traditional book may wear off quickly as people grow more comfortable with using e-readers.
“The book is Renaissance technology. And there very well could have been the same reaction to transition from papyrus to the codex in ancient times,” he said.
But Lock said the book will most likely remain the reigning champion in the classroom, at least for awhile. E-readers can be useful for students to browse various titles while using actual books when they want to spend more time analyzing the text.
Lock said physical books are better suited to intense literary study.
“The physicality of the text can vastly change your opinions and interpretations of the text, and there is a clear distinction between causal browsing and formal literary study. These devices are really convenient for casual consultation, as it can encourage fast forwarding through literature which is something that is completely fine for casual study, but is dangerous for formal criticism,” he said.
Lock said it’s also important to keep in mind that authors write their work with the traditional book format in mind. In order for students to truly experience the book, they should read it in its physical form.
Writing for the purpose of electronic reading is bound to be different than traditional book writing, which students should be aware of, Lock said.
“There is a difference between texts created in an electronic age, where the author expects this transformation from their original text to an electronic device. I think it’s very useful for a student to see those books in their original forms, the way the pages are constructed according to the author’s original intentions for the work.”
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