Monday, September 5, 2011

Kindle Chronicles on history of reading and screens

The always interesting Kindle Chronicles, Len Edgerly's podcast, has an interview in episode 161 with author Jane Brox, about how text and reading changed in history. It's much more interesting than it probably sounds to most. Did you know that there didn't used to be spaces between words? Or that people used to read aloud always, even to themselves? (I tried it, it actually changes the reading experience in interesting ways.)

I'm proud to say that Len Edgerly also in this episode took up a couple of questions about ereaders and screens that he and I have been corresponding about. He might work some of it into the book he is writing, along with the weird and hard to grasp question: 'why is ereading so *much* more compelling to some of us than paper reading?' It goes way beyond what "convenience" can explain.

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