The e-book, the e-reader, and the future of reading

These days, the opportunity for that kind of “deep dive reading” is vanishing, Wolf says. We certainly consume a larger variety of content: Forrester Research has reported that the average American used the Internet 12 hours a week in 2009, second only to the 13 hours spent in front of a TV. At any given moment, we’re watching the stock ticker on our BlackBerry, catching up with a distant cousin on Facebook, tracking gossip on Twitter, perusing the news on csmonitor.com, the Huffington Post, or any of a thousand other sites. We are more wired than we have ever been before. But the rapid-fire pace of social media – the RSS feeds, the blog posts, the status updates – is no substitute for the immersion we find in a great book.

“My concern is that we will develop within the next generation a shorter, less-enriched [brain] circuitry for reading,” says Wolf. “And I don’t think I’m ultraconservative. I’m not saying that we shouldn’t read online.... I’m saying that we need to preserve what’s best about the present reading brain – preserve the beautiful function of books in our lives – as we move across mediums that will allow us ever greater access to information.”

Even the most dedicated futurists agree that the adoption of e-reading will follow a slow curve, expanding outward from a cadre of early adopters to the public at large.

“I think we’re in the very early stages of assembling a tool kit that will enable a tremendous amount of experimentation,” says Mike Shatzkin, CEO of The Idea Logical Company, a consulting firm. “It will be many years before we figure out what the new book forms will be and what impact they’ll have on the way people think and behave.”

In the meantime, readers may inhabit a happy middle ground.

“The technology of the book has withstood 500 years for a reason. It’s a superior, time-tested object,” observes Dennis Loy Johnson, the publisher of Melville House, a Brooklyn-based press. “I can envision a future where everyone has a Kindle. But I don’t think that means the eradication of books.”

Mr. Johnson predicts a “long-term coexistence.” He says that “if people want to be reading newspapers, they’ll use an electronic device. If people want to be reading fiction or investigative journalism, they’ll stay with the book.”

The “either/or” fears of the book being overshadowed by the e-reader, says William Powers, a media critic, seems to be engineered by baby boomers who assume that kids will totally eschew the hardbound book for an electronic screen. “The human brain doesn’t change in one generation,” says Mr. Powers, author of the forthcoming “Hamlet’s BlackBerry: A Practical Philosophy for Building a Good Life in the Digital Age.” “It’s not going to happen like that.”

Not so long ago, Powers bought a Kindle, expecting that the device would be popular with his 10-year-old son. The gift was a bust.

“He said, ‘Dad, this isn’t as good as a real book,’ ” Powers laughs. “This is a kid who’s wild about screens. We ended up sending the Kindle back.”

– Julie Masis contributed to this article.

Previous

1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6