Friday
Dec311999
132 - A Week with an E-Book: Confessions of a Digital Reader
December 31, 1999
The MASIE Center http://www.masie.com Elliott Masie, Editor
Special Report: A Week with an E-Book: Confessions of a Digital Reader
For the past week I have been an E-Reader. I have read three books (2
novels and 1 non-fiction bestsellers) using the new genre of electronic
books. We purchased a Softbook device (www.softbook.com) and downloaded a
couple of books to see what the world of electronic reading was all about.
Softbook weighs a couple of pounds, the size of a legal pad and has a
bright, backlit screen. It has a telephone modem built in that allows the
user to dial up and order (and download) books from a wide range of
categories. I downloaded the latest Bob Woodward book in under 4 minutes.
It takes about 1 minute per 100 pages. Controls on the screen allowed me
to make the text larger, search for a word or phrase, underline or highlight
a section and even turn down the corner of a page digitally.
I read my books in all my favorite reading places:
* On my sofa
* In the bathroom
* In our bed
* On the porch
* At my desk in the office
* On the lawn of an outdoor concert
Here are my observations and learning's:
- I LOVED the ability to order a book over the phone and have it delivered
instantly!
- I HATED the glare from the sun that made reading outdoors impossible!
- I LIKED the ability to read in bed, with the lights out and without waking
Cathy.
- I WISH the weight of the book was lighter so that it was easier to hold in
one hand while reading.
- I WONDER if all the books will start to seem the same using this device.
- I VALUED the ability to mark up the book without really marking up the
book.
- I WANT the ability to get a book via our internet connection and even a
infrared port
- I NEED the price to be lower than the $15 a book. A book club
subscription would be great!
- I DESIRE better graphics, color and other features that will clearly come
in future editions.
- I DREAM of the same device also having a browser and other capabilities.
- I SMILED at the leather cover than made it feel more like the book it
wasn't.
All in all, it felt good to have this as a reading option. I can imagine
that this genre of reading devices will expand and improve. The battery
life will get longer and the weight will decrease. It was fun to be able
to have a book with me that never ran out. People stopped me and wanted to
see the device that they had heard was coming some time in the future.
It would be a great tool to give to every high school student instead of the
backpack of books they now carry to and from class. It would be wonderful
to have a faculty annotate a layer of comments on top of a classic or
textbook. I would love to be able to "beam" handouts to a group of
learners in a classroom.
I found that I got more tired reading, perhaps it was the backlight. And,
it felt strange to not sense how far I was in the novel by weight, instead
of a sliding bar at the bottom of the screen. Most of these are habits and
customs of reading. So, it will be interesting to see how we adapt to
these new devices and to watch how our comfort evolves.
We are going to use several Softbooks at TechLearn '99 as an experiment for
our program and handouts. We will lend a few to participants to see how it
feels to use this technology in action.
For information:
Softbook : http://www.softbook.com
Rocketbook (an alternative) http://www.rocketbook.com
There are also ebooks for palm based computing devices.
To register for TechLearn '99 (We have filled 64% of the seats already!) go
to http://www.techlearn.com
Special Report: A Week with an E-Book: Confessions of a Digital Reader
For the past week I have been an E-Reader. I have read three books (2
novels and 1 non-fiction bestsellers) using the new genre of electronic
books. We purchased a Softbook device (www.softbook.com) and downloaded a
couple of books to see what the world of electronic reading was all about.
Softbook weighs a couple of pounds, the size of a legal pad and has a
bright, backlit screen. It has a telephone modem built in that allows the
user to dial up and order (and download) books from a wide range of
categories. I downloaded the latest Bob Woodward book in under 4 minutes.
It takes about 1 minute per 100 pages. Controls on the screen allowed me
to make the text larger, search for a word or phrase, underline or highlight
a section and even turn down the corner of a page digitally.
I read my books in all my favorite reading places:
* On my sofa
* In the bathroom
* In our bed
* On the porch
* At my desk in the office
* On the lawn of an outdoor concert
Here are my observations and learning's:
- I LOVED the ability to order a book over the phone and have it delivered
instantly!
- I HATED the glare from the sun that made reading outdoors impossible!
- I LIKED the ability to read in bed, with the lights out and without waking
Cathy.
- I WISH the weight of the book was lighter so that it was easier to hold in
one hand while reading.
- I WONDER if all the books will start to seem the same using this device.
- I VALUED the ability to mark up the book without really marking up the
book.
- I WANT the ability to get a book via our internet connection and even a
infrared port
- I NEED the price to be lower than the $15 a book. A book club
subscription would be great!
- I DESIRE better graphics, color and other features that will clearly come
in future editions.
- I DREAM of the same device also having a browser and other capabilities.
- I SMILED at the leather cover than made it feel more like the book it
wasn't.
All in all, it felt good to have this as a reading option. I can imagine
that this genre of reading devices will expand and improve. The battery
life will get longer and the weight will decrease. It was fun to be able
to have a book with me that never ran out. People stopped me and wanted to
see the device that they had heard was coming some time in the future.
It would be a great tool to give to every high school student instead of the
backpack of books they now carry to and from class. It would be wonderful
to have a faculty annotate a layer of comments on top of a classic or
textbook. I would love to be able to "beam" handouts to a group of
learners in a classroom.
I found that I got more tired reading, perhaps it was the backlight. And,
it felt strange to not sense how far I was in the novel by weight, instead
of a sliding bar at the bottom of the screen. Most of these are habits and
customs of reading. So, it will be interesting to see how we adapt to
these new devices and to watch how our comfort evolves.
We are going to use several Softbooks at TechLearn '99 as an experiment for
our program and handouts. We will lend a few to participants to see how it
feels to use this technology in action.
For information:
Softbook : http://www.softbook.com
Rocketbook (an alternative) http://www.rocketbook.com
There are also ebooks for palm based computing devices.
To register for TechLearn '99 (We have filled 64% of the seats already!) go
to http://www.techlearn.com
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