Book publishers fight the one-screen problem

I guess I've never been a very big book/novel reader. Very rarely have I sat down with something akin to full novel and read it cover to cover. If I'm anything I'm more like an old-timy radio junkie. I much prefer audio renditions while I read more dry technical material or play games.

I used to hook digitized articles into my Mac's speech synthesis fictions back in college do my first "read" by ear.

Old habits die hard so I am only now picking up more digital reading material. Hard to say if I like it better. Although I do like reading more techical information on my iPad give the highlighting annotation abilities of many PDF reader Apps. It's making reading and processing Common Core US education standards far more enjoyable then going over it print out, a box of highlighters, and a pad of sticy notes. Next "big read" will be the OSX service and server course books.

Until the iPad has a dual LCD / e-ink display I will never see it as viable competition to dedicated e-reader units. I read blogs everyday, but my eyes definitely feel it at the end of the day (though F.lux helps!). I love my Kindle. I purchased it when I graduated from college, hoping to finally get around to all the pleasure reading I had been missing out on. I've read dozens of books on it already. Maybe color e-ink will get up to par with LCD, maybe the other way around. Get on it engineers!

Bunch of lazy bums.

So make the books more compelling, better quality writing on more pertinent subjects, etc. Embrace this new technology instead of ranting about it. Do your book publishing better in this digital age, and perhaps you won't become extinct.

Yeah, we've always had a television or laptop available as a distraction to reading but things have changed. In the old days, if I wanted to read uninterupted I'd take my book to a quiet room or go sit on the back deck. Now, I may be sitting on my lawn chair with every intent on finishing my book...right after I check the latest headlines from Drudge, hey, who won the game last night, what? a video of sealteam 6 in action!

Reading a book is the mental equivalent of going to the gym and working out. It takes discipline and focus. That's why gyms don't put cushy chairs anywhere.

What a whining bunch.

So before the problem was they were separate things: people had to take the time to go to libraries, to bookstores or at least their bookshelf to get the book.

But now the problem is books right there on hand in the same device people use for many other things?

There's something broken in their logic IMHO.

I think they are over thinking it. I may sit down at home and read on my iPad. The TV is in the same room.

When I have had enough of reading I may turn on the TV or go and browse using my iPad or Mac. This behaviour has not change because I have an iPad. It is the same if I am reading a paper book.

The only change to how I read if I am using the iPad is where I do it in public. I do not take it out on the Tube or on a Train, or where I think it is a bad idea due to getting mugged. So in some cases my reading has decreased..

So what they are saying is that before the iDevices came out, people used to play video games and read books simultaneously?

I don't think so.

For what it's worth I've found myself doing MORE reading since getting an iPad. It just makes it easier to do.

When I want to read without distractions I leave the iPad at home and take out the Kindle. Till my kindle arrived I was reading maybe 1 in 5 of the books I bought, and now have 90 vying for my attention.

I think the book publishers have every right to be afraid. i bought my ipad with the main focus to use it as a book consumption device. However, nine times out of ten, I ended up reading my favorite blogs or watching Hulu instead. I didn't really read any more books after the purchase of my ipad than I did before.

Although, in my view, the state of the art is not ready for books yet. The combination of LED backlighting and inability to get tiny print real sharp like in magazines is a downer.