tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-640125206110669026.post1116995748770860436..comments2011-04-25T10:30:06.350-04:00Comments on Wynken de Worde: false endingsSarah Wernerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06941029918210770136noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-640125206110669026.post-38700298523765902242010-08-04T10:51:31.698-04:002010-08-04T10:51:31.698-04:00Welcome back :)Welcome back :)Katrinahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11816155888326772079noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-640125206110669026.post-65531793332565745062010-08-02T12:47:28.786-04:002010-08-02T12:47:28.786-04:00Ah, the joys and confusions of audiobooks! It real...Ah, the joys and confusions of audiobooks! It really is amazing to realize how dependent we are on knowing that the ending is coming and how disconcerting it is when we are experiencing what would be a book in a different media. <br /><br />And I agree that "book" isn't quite the term for what I read on the iPad. I try to use the language of story/text/novel when I'm talking about it, but it's hard not to slip into the familiarity of "book". Bob Stein just posted over at if:book on exactly this, and suggests that the word we are looking for in these discussions of the future-of-not-book-books is "app." I'm still thinking about his point, but it's worth reading: http://www.futureofthebook.org/blog/archives/2010/08/the_future_of_the_app.htmlSarah Wernerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06941029918210770136noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-640125206110669026.post-43074215585102385122010-08-01T18:56:07.236-04:002010-08-01T18:56:07.236-04:00Glad to see you back! You're encouraging me to...Glad to see you back! You're encouraging me to get back to blogging, too. <br /><br />I'm convinced that I originally fell in love with reading because it stages my obsession with closure. I like beginning books well enough, but boy do I love ending them. And seeing my thumb mark how far I am! Calculating how many pages to go to conclusion! That is sheer pleasure -- the bubblewrap-popping kind. So I, too, have been disoriented by audiobooks, and would, I think, miss that experience with an iPad or Kindle. (It would probably alter the genres I read as a result -- only reading that totally absorbs me.)<br /><br />This might get to the "at what point is it a book" question. You're reading novels and articles, but perhaps not something that could, or should, be called a book. And I say that without a trace of Luddism.Whitneyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01064261761562860891noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-640125206110669026.post-38620559053529876102010-07-30T18:19:42.496-04:002010-07-30T18:19:42.496-04:00I have been having a similar experience with audio...I have been having a similar experience with audiobooks. I have started listening to audiobooks on my iphone while I do housework (and suddenly I find myself looking forward to doing dishes and trying to find something to clean so I can finish the chapter!). Unless I look at the screen regularly, I don't really have much sense of where I am in the book, and it's a very disorienting feeling. This totally threw me off guard recently - I was listening to Margaret Atwood's "Oryx and Crake," and I had no idea I was near the end. I can say without spoilers that the end is a bit of a cliffhanger. I was devastated and even a little angry when the book ended where it did, because I really wasn't expecting an ending any time soon. I wonder if my reaction to the ending would have been any different if I had known it was imminent.MoJohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01780829155290248265noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-640125206110669026.post-68244898279908023252010-07-29T15:56:06.023-04:002010-07-29T15:56:06.023-04:00I've actually found the lack of the thumb on t...I've actually found the lack of the thumb on the page kind of freeing. I had not realized how dependent I was on knowing where I was in the text. And the slight anxiety of knowing I'm nearing the end and will the story wrap up happily by then and what will I read next and what happens if I'm not near a bookstore for another week???? Um, right, where was I? Oh, yes, I'm free from anxiety now, that's it...Sarah Wernerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06941029918210770136noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-640125206110669026.post-61622006958341966722010-07-29T13:02:19.946-04:002010-07-29T13:02:19.946-04:00Good to have you back, your posts are always thoug...Good to have you back, your posts are always thought provoking and great to read. <br /><br />It's got me thinking about my own reading habits, or recent lack of them which I might blog about in return. But I think you hit the nail on the head about reading books on I-Phone/I-pad/Computer screen, it's the loss of the thumb in the page. I'm an impatient reader, i want to know exactly where I've got and it almost becomes an act of endurance (even if I'm loving the book), so the loss of that is probably one of the key factors that makes it hard for me to read 'onscreen'. Although I do love the idea that it brings us back to more ancient forms of reading (always a sucker for a historic parallel).Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com