I like seeing people reading books in public. Whether it’s on the bus, in the park, or people chilling in a café on their lunch break – it's good to see.
I think
most people read to escape reality for a brief moment, at least I know I do. A good book, fiction or
non-fiction, can temporarily remove you from the present, and transport you
somewhere new.
For example, I recently ploughed through Andre Agassi’s
autobiography, Open. It’s well
written, and really takes you to the places it wants to – for better and for
worse. When Andre is standing in front of hundreds of spectators, all cheering
him after a grand slam victory, you can feel the excitement and electricity in the arena. Equally, when he
is depressed and injured, you experience his melancholy.
However,
with the rise of mobile technology, I wonder whether people can also find this escape
in their tablets and smart-phones just as easily (facebook, twitter, tinder etc). I love my tablet (Nexus 7).
It’s great for music, games, movies, reading etc. But are tablets and smartphones slowly eradicating the pastime
of reading?
Nowadays, I usually do
my reading whilst commuting to and from work, but as a kid, I couldn’t go to sleep without
reading before bedtime. I’d read several chapters of The Hobbit, Charlie &
the Chocolate Factory, or some Hardy Boys stories, and then I’d drift into
sleep and dream about them. If I had been exposed to our current standard of technology when I was younger, I’m not sure if I would have still been such an
avid reader.
I'm still fairly new to e-books, only buying my first one last year, Neil Gaiman's The Ocean at the end of the Lane, but I'm getting used to them, and buying more. But sometimes I get the urge to buy a paperback, like Haruki Murakami's 1Q84 - which I bought last month, and am still trying to figure out what it's about.
I have the
Kindle app downloaded on my Android phone, and tablet, and find it easy to use. If I’m reading on my tablet one night, and then the next
day I’m waiting for a train and don’t have my tablet on me – I can use my phone
to continue my e-book from where I last bookmarked it.
I’m all for
any advancement in technology, and hope that as we use our phones and tablets
even more, the concept of reading e-books on our phones and tablets becomes
more commonplace.
P.S. If you
haven’t already got the Kindle app, download it here for free:
