[silk] have your reading habits changed?
So I got myself a Kindle. And whether it is the novelty or the device-specific aspects (doesn't need ambient light, sufficiently booklike that one can read sprawled in bed, etc) - I have consumed 3 books in 3 days, more than in the preceding 3 months. So - have you folks noticed your reading habits change with the means of reading? Is this a special case of the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis [1]? Udhay [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sapir_Whorf -- ((Udhay Shankar N)) ((udhay @ pobox.com)) ((www.digeratus.com))
Re: [silk] have your reading habits changed?
I use the Kindle app on a 7 Android tablet and, since I started, I read more each month than in any of the 5 or 10 previous years. One big reason is the instant gratification, see a notice about an interesting book in a magazine or blog or whatever and POP, you have it. I think that: - the future of paper is restricted to antiquarian books and things that require high-quality graphics, coffee-table to textbook - the pricing of ebooks is insane - the production values of ebooks are horrible, if something needs graphics or maps or math to work, get paper Some recent gleanings in https://www.tbray.org/ongoing/What/Arts/Books/ On Sun, Dec 29, 2013 at 9:09 PM, Udhay Shankar N ud...@pobox.com wrote: So I got myself a Kindle. And whether it is the novelty or the device-specific aspects (doesn't need ambient light, sufficiently booklike that one can read sprawled in bed, etc) - I have consumed 3 books in 3 days, more than in the preceding 3 months. So - have you folks noticed your reading habits change with the means of reading? Is this a special case of the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis [1]? Udhay [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sapir_Whorf -- ((Udhay Shankar N)) ((udhay @ pobox.com)) ((www.digeratus.com))
Re: [silk] have your reading habits changed?
It has happened with me too and all these days I was wondering if it happened to others too or just to me. I attribute it more to the kid with a new toy phenomenon though. Best wishes, Pradeep Kapur +91-94370-28400 On 30 December 2013 10:55, Tim Bray tb...@textuality.com wrote: I use the Kindle app on a 7 Android tablet and, since I started, I read more each month than in any of the 5 or 10 previous years. One big reason is the instant gratification, see a notice about an interesting book in a magazine or blog or whatever and POP, you have it. I think that: - the future of paper is restricted to antiquarian books and things that require high-quality graphics, coffee-table to textbook - the pricing of ebooks is insane - the production values of ebooks are horrible, if something needs graphics or maps or math to work, get paper Some recent gleanings in https://www.tbray.org/ongoing/What/Arts/Books/ On Sun, Dec 29, 2013 at 9:09 PM, Udhay Shankar N ud...@pobox.com wrote: So I got myself a Kindle. And whether it is the novelty or the device-specific aspects (doesn't need ambient light, sufficiently booklike that one can read sprawled in bed, etc) - I have consumed 3 books in 3 days, more than in the preceding 3 months. So - have you folks noticed your reading habits change with the means of reading? Is this a special case of the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis [1]? Udhay [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sapir_Whorf -- ((Udhay Shankar N)) ((udhay @ pobox.com)) ((www.digeratus.com))
Re: [silk] have your reading habits changed?
So - have you folks noticed your reading habits change with the means of reading? Is this a special case of the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis [1]? Short answer, yes. Slightly longer answer: yes, but eventually it became like any other book that I ignore. But I don't see how Sapir-Whorf is relevant here, because there's no linguistic impact on reading. But perhaps I misread you, and what you meant is that there is a medium-based relativity induced by moving from a book to a Kindle. I'm inclined to disagree at this point, because (a) there isn't enough data to indicate this, (b) whatever data exists is corrupted because people still read through both deadtree and electronic media, and (c) the data is not being gathered at a steady state, so the relativity is skewed by the state of experience. The last bit interests me: in my case, reading behaviour peaked, and then dropped, though the steady state is higher overall than before. However, my reading of deadtree books has grown, not the Kindle content, which still remains at about a book a month. I find this interesting because the single-sample data point is counter-intuitive, but not surprising. Curious to see what the larger pattern might be. -- Sumant Srivathsan http://sumants.blogspot.com
Re: [silk] have your reading habits changed?
I have always been a voracious reader - but a lot of my reading is pulp, classic and out of print pulp when and where I can get it. This gettability varies between second hand bookstores (hole in the wall real ones as well as amazon sellers) and ebooks of one type or the other. So I won't say my reading patterns have changed all that much after using the kindle for a long time (on my ipad and my laptop). Any huge spike in Udhay's reading after buying a kindle is more attributable to hey, new toy! right now. I guess he'll have to use it for a few months before things settle into a repeatable pattern. --srs (iPad) On 30-Dec-2013, at 10:55, Tim Bray tb...@textuality.com wrote: I use the Kindle app on a 7 Android tablet and, since I started, I read more each month than in any of the 5 or 10 previous years. One big reason is the instant gratification, see a notice about an interesting book in a magazine or blog or whatever and POP, you have it. I think that: - the future of paper is restricted to antiquarian books and things that require high-quality graphics, coffee-table to textbook - the pricing of ebooks is insane - the production values of ebooks are horrible, if something needs graphics or maps or math to work, get paper Some recent gleanings in https://www.tbray.org/ongoing/What/Arts/Books/ On Sun, Dec 29, 2013 at 9:09 PM, Udhay Shankar N ud...@pobox.com wrote: So I got myself a Kindle. And whether it is the novelty or the device-specific aspects (doesn't need ambient light, sufficiently booklike that one can read sprawled in bed, etc) - I have consumed 3 books in 3 days, more than in the preceding 3 months. So - have you folks noticed your reading habits change with the means of reading? Is this a special case of the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis [1]? Udhay [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sapir_Whorf -- ((Udhay Shankar N)) ((udhay @ pobox.com)) ((www.digeratus.com))
Re: [silk] have your reading habits changed?
On 30 December 2013 10:39, Udhay Shankar N ud...@pobox.com wrote: So I got myself a Kindle. And whether it is the novelty or the device-specific aspects (doesn't need ambient light, sufficiently booklike that one can read sprawled in bed, etc) - I have consumed 3 books in 3 days, more than in the preceding 3 months. So - have you folks noticed your reading habits change with the means of reading? Is this a special case of the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis [1]? Udhay [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sapir_Whorf -- ((Udhay Shankar N)) ((udhay @ pobox.com)) ((www.digeratus.com)) The only significant impact of e-books on my reading has been a lighter load while travelling. I still prefer dead-tree versions wherever possible. Ingrid Srinath @ingridsrinath
Re: [silk] have your reading habits changed?
I stated on the Kindle but then found much lower prices on Google Play Newsstand - and magazines too in full living color. I've subscribed to several magazines on there of late - and have begun enjoying being notified if new issues being automatically downloaded. On 29-Dec-2013 9:37 pm, Ingrid ingrid.srin...@gmail.com wrote: On 30 December 2013 10:39, Udhay Shankar N ud...@pobox.com wrote: So I got myself a Kindle. And whether it is the novelty or the device-specific aspects (doesn't need ambient light, sufficiently booklike that one can read sprawled in bed, etc) - I have consumed 3 books in 3 days, more than in the preceding 3 months. So - have you folks noticed your reading habits change with the means of reading? Is this a special case of the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis [1]? Udhay [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sapir_Whorf -- ((Udhay Shankar N)) ((udhay @ pobox.com)) ((www.digeratus.com)) The only significant impact of e-books on my reading has been a lighter load while travelling. I still prefer dead-tree versions wherever possible. Ingrid Srinath @ingridsrinath
Re: [silk] have your reading habits changed?
I convert all my books to ePub format and host them on a Linode instance so that I have them all anywhere I have internet connectivity. Given our peripatetic lifestyle it's a convenient way to access our library (though honestly the whole library fits on on 16gb micro-sd card) -- Charles On Mon, Dec 30, 2013 at 7:41 AM, Mahesh Murthy mahesh.mur...@gmail.comwrote: I stated on the Kindle but then found much lower prices on Google Play Newsstand - and magazines too in full living color. I've subscribed to several magazines on there of late - and have begun enjoying being notified if new issues being automatically downloaded. On 29-Dec-2013 9:37 pm, Ingrid ingrid.srin...@gmail.com wrote: On 30 December 2013 10:39, Udhay Shankar N ud...@pobox.com wrote: So I got myself a Kindle. And whether it is the novelty or the device-specific aspects (doesn't need ambient light, sufficiently booklike that one can read sprawled in bed, etc) - I have consumed 3 books in 3 days, more than in the preceding 3 months. So - have you folks noticed your reading habits change with the means of reading? Is this a special case of the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis [1]? Udhay [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sapir_Whorf -- ((Udhay Shankar N)) ((udhay @ pobox.com)) ((www.digeratus.com)) The only significant impact of e-books on my reading has been a lighter load while travelling. I still prefer dead-tree versions wherever possible. Ingrid Srinath @ingridsrinath
Re: [silk] have your reading habits changed?
BTW, a useful fact for those just getting into this: If you’re reading kindle books, Amazon lets you have a large number of clients, over 10. So if you trust your family enough to share your Amazon password, the buying/using unit for a book is, effectively, the household, which is as it should be. -T On Sun, Dec 29, 2013 at 10:10 PM, Charles Haynes charles.hay...@gmail.comwrote: I convert all my books to ePub format and host them on a Linode instance so that I have them all anywhere I have internet connectivity. Given our peripatetic lifestyle it's a convenient way to access our library (though honestly the whole library fits on on 16gb micro-sd card) -- Charles On Mon, Dec 30, 2013 at 7:41 AM, Mahesh Murthy mahesh.mur...@gmail.com wrote: I stated on the Kindle but then found much lower prices on Google Play Newsstand - and magazines too in full living color. I've subscribed to several magazines on there of late - and have begun enjoying being notified if new issues being automatically downloaded. On 29-Dec-2013 9:37 pm, Ingrid ingrid.srin...@gmail.com wrote: On 30 December 2013 10:39, Udhay Shankar N ud...@pobox.com wrote: So I got myself a Kindle. And whether it is the novelty or the device-specific aspects (doesn't need ambient light, sufficiently booklike that one can read sprawled in bed, etc) - I have consumed 3 books in 3 days, more than in the preceding 3 months. So - have you folks noticed your reading habits change with the means of reading? Is this a special case of the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis [1]? Udhay [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sapir_Whorf -- ((Udhay Shankar N)) ((udhay @ pobox.com)) ((www.digeratus.com)) The only significant impact of e-books on my reading has been a lighter load while travelling. I still prefer dead-tree versions wherever possible. Ingrid Srinath @ingridsrinath
Re: [silk] have your reading habits changed?
My reading more than doubled this past year. Nothing to do with a Kindle (I'm still firmly in the deadtree camp), but a lifestyle change where I decided to ditch private transport and depend on public transport entirely--adds to my commute time, but also adds to my reading-time.
