Our IF blog author Klaus Hnilica gave me permission to read his not yet published thriller “The Trembing of the Dragonfly”. Since I had the book in pdf format on my computer and did not want to print out and carry around a lot of paper, I read parts of the novel in Finland on my small MacBook Air.
I was fascinated and literally ate up the entire piece in one go – which made me unresponsive as far as the rest of the world was concerned for several hours. Mind you, we are talking me sitting at the computer! Up to now, I considered myself an enemy of „electronic reading“, wishing to remain faithful to the good old book. This was the first time I read a fairly long novel on the computer screen. For me, the experience is equal to a cultural shock.
Reading electronically is really great fun! You do not have to turn pages and you always have a good overview of things. Boring parts can be skipped more elegantly than in a book and you will always quickly find the exact place where you wanted to find something again. I can zoom to get the letter format I want. And I can even read in the darkness – so one of my childhood dreams has come true. If it can be done so easily on a simply Mac model, I am sure it will be even better on one of the special devices.
And as soon as I have finished with the book of one author, I can download the next one. That does not sound bad, either, does it? I imagine „reading electronically“ must be a dream with technological books, as well. After all, when reading a technological book, I usually do not read the entire book. Instead, I select individual chapters or interesting sections.
There are more advantages to ebooks. Restricted edictions and translations into not so common languages will also make sense. The editor no longer has to deal with the out-of-print problem, nor will he have to dispose of the books nobody buys.
So now I turned from „Saul“ to „Paul“. Until recently, I really believed electronic books do not have much of a chance. But now I am convinced that reading the electronic versions of all kinds of literature will quickly get fashionable. After all, innovation also means destruction.
Now I have to come up with my own concept for a personal reading strategy. Would you like to help me develop my own e-Book strategy?
RMD
(Translated by EG)
P.S.
Of course, I still have a few reservations. In my opinion, electronic books should be considerably less expensive than the corresponding paperbacks. And on the flea market, people will continue to be happy with books printed on paper.
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