Do Children's E-Books Ruin Reading? 149
An anonymous reader writes "A fierce argument has begun over whether children are actually 'reading' new e-books or simply 'watching' them. As publishers pump increasing levels of interactivity into e-books, the New York Times and others argue that these highly-interactive, popular titles are ruining the purpose of reading. The NYT also worries that new e-book titles could distract kids from the tougher task of actually concentrating on literature: '[W]hat will become of the readers we've been: quiet, thoughtful, patient, abstracted, in a world where interactive can be too tempting to ignore?' Others, like Gizmodo, defend these new e-books, pointing at titles like Alice for the iPad, of which they blabber, 'For the first time in my life, I'm blown away by an interactive book design.' But, the NYT counters, 'What I really love [about traditional books] is their inertness. No matter how I shake Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, mushrooms don't tumble out of the upper margin, unlike the Alice for the iPad.'"
Eh? (Score:3, Informative)
Re:I want Textadventures! (Score:5, Informative)
There are. http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html/ref=amb_link_86283691_14?ie=UTF8&docId=1000449691&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=center-11&pf_rd_r=0RZ8W5BAKW1XS4XQ4DD3&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=1260058202&pf_rd_i=1268190011 [amazon.com]
Translation (Score:4, Informative)
Translation: "It's new and different, and I'm frightened by it."
Re:Eh? (Score:3, Informative)
There's always been and always will be a small minority of literature romanticists that insist that the way it was done was perfect, when in fact it was badly broken for a sizable portion of the populace and mostly served to create an elite. It's sort of like how somehow it's terrible to have books on tape, because you're being deprived of the serious discomfort of having to hold a book in an awkward position and risk the neck damage that encourages.
Re:Ruining the purpose of reading? ABSOLUTELY! (Score:2, Informative)
If that was a pun at my post then you should know that this site formatted it that way. It was full of paragraphs when I typed it out.
Re:Ruining the purpose of reading? ABSOLUTELY! (Score:2, Informative)
Should have selected Plain Old Text rather than HTML.
You can set your default text layout in your preferences.