Ann Kirschner, after reading Little Dorritt in four different formats:
Oh boy, have I had a lot of arguments along the way to the marriage of Little Dorrit and her long-suffering beau, Arthur Clennam! Readers are passionate and opinionated advocates for their preferred formats. Flip announced that she reads only hardcovers; end of conversation. “I get it,” said Bill, watching me read on the iPhone: “You like your books little.” Bob is no Luddite, but he insists that Steve Jobs has bribed me, since the Kindle is so obviously superior. Just wait for the Apple tablet,” advises techno-sage Joe. And Judith derides my affection for audiobooks as “not really reading.”
That’s the worst accusation: that I am not a serious reader. Not guilty! I love books as much as anybody. But I love reading more. It is the sustained and individual encounter with ideas and stories that is so bewitching. If new formats allow us to have more of those, let us welcome and learn from them.
- Reading Dickens Four Ways: One readers experiment
1 response so far ↓
J L Wilson // Jun 12, 2009 at 10:29 am
“I love books as much as anybody. But I love reading more. ”
This absolutely sums up what I feel. I get so many people who talk about ‘the feel of books, the smell of them, I can’t give up that.’ My response has been: “I love the story. I don’t really care how it’s delivered.”