Recently, Writtenwyrd pointed out that there is a lot of great material on writing on the net. Blogs, of course, but also articles all over the place on characterization, punctuation, grammar, style, voice, common errors, etc. I read quite a few writing related blogs and have checked out lots of online essays, but there is an issue. And I wonder if it’s just me, just a matter of experience and training, and if the younger generations will find this issue trivial.
The issue is that I, personally, don’t feel like I read at the same depth when I’m reading online as I do when I’m offline. Almost everything about being online is faster paced to me, and that includes reading. When I’m into a printed book, I often stop and think about what I’ve just read, or stop to visualize what is happening. I almost never do that when I’m reading online. I feel like I need to get the material and move on.
I think about this in relationship to my students. Most of them don’t read enough, certainly, but more and more of what they are reading is indeed online. And I wonder if they are handicapping themselves even further in the development of that reading practice we liked to call “Critical Reading,” where there is a big evaluation component.
But maybe it’s just a matter of practice and experience. I grew up reading print, of course. To me, that is still, in a sense, “real” reading. Will students who grow up reading online develop the same relationship with that media as those of us who grew up with print developed?
Do you find yourself reading faster and shallower online? Does reading on an ereader make any difference? When I sit down with my Kindle, I read much like I do with a regular printed book. But that’s not true on the computer as I surf the net. I wonder how much of this to bring up with my students. Maybe I’ll try to get them into a discussion of it. But I need to do some more thinking on the topic myself. How about you?
----
----
Showing posts with label Kindle 2. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Kindle 2. Show all posts
Thursday, January 14, 2010
Monday, March 30, 2009
Make Up Time
Well, to make up for the week of torrential downpours, nature treated us Saturday and Sunday to absolutely stunning days. Clear skies of crisp blue. Cool temperatures with almost no humidity and a sweet breeze. I read a lot on the deck while I watched the hungry birds swarm our feeders. (For a couple of days we had been putting food "on" the deck because it required wading to reach the feeders.)
I'm still finding reading on my Kindle 2 a pleasing experience. It's nice to always have a perfectly flat page, I'm finding. I also discovered earlier in the week that Amazon has quite a number of free Kindle books available for download, including a Robin Hobb fantasy and a Lee Child thriller. However, I must confess that I actually put in an order for printed copies of several of the books I've already read on my Kindle. I just really, really like having printed books around me.
On Saturday, Lana and I went to a few garage sales in Abita Springs. Word had gone out Friday that the town wide garage sale plans had been postponed, but some folks either didn't get the word or decided Saturday was too lovely not to have a sale. Despite having to walk through mud in places, a good time seemed to be had by all. Lana bought quite a few pieces of the colored glass she loves, and I bought........drumroll please.......books! It's hard to pass up any book that you might one day read when you get them for 25 to 50 cents.
I also got in a couple of good walks, and Lana and I went Sunday afternoon to one of the local nature centers. I'm sure she'll have up some pics this week.
And in the evenings, writing was accomplished.
-----
-----
I'm still finding reading on my Kindle 2 a pleasing experience. It's nice to always have a perfectly flat page, I'm finding. I also discovered earlier in the week that Amazon has quite a number of free Kindle books available for download, including a Robin Hobb fantasy and a Lee Child thriller. However, I must confess that I actually put in an order for printed copies of several of the books I've already read on my Kindle. I just really, really like having printed books around me.
On Saturday, Lana and I went to a few garage sales in Abita Springs. Word had gone out Friday that the town wide garage sale plans had been postponed, but some folks either didn't get the word or decided Saturday was too lovely not to have a sale. Despite having to walk through mud in places, a good time seemed to be had by all. Lana bought quite a few pieces of the colored glass she loves, and I bought........drumroll please.......books! It's hard to pass up any book that you might one day read when you get them for 25 to 50 cents.
I also got in a couple of good walks, and Lana and I went Sunday afternoon to one of the local nature centers. I'm sure she'll have up some pics this week.
And in the evenings, writing was accomplished.
-----
-----
Thursday, March 05, 2009
Kindle 2: Update
Well, I've found new reasons to like my Kindle, and one reason to not be quite so happy.
First, battery life continues to be outstanding. I hardly ever read more than a couple of hours straight and so far that has posed no problem. And even when I leave the machine running between reading bouts, it has a sleep mode that protects battery life.
Second, and most wonderous, the process of "Kindlizing" many of the ebooks I've already downloaded from the public domain has been virtually effortless. You sign in at Amazon, go to your kindle page, where they have already assigned you an email address based on your registration email address. For example, if the email you registered at Amazon was Nomorecarrots@hotmail.com, your kindle address would be nomorecarrots@kindle.com
You then type in any email address you want kindle to recognize as acceptable, such as a home or work address. You attach files to an email from that address and send it to nomorecarrots@kindle.com. They kindlize it and return it to you. This happens within a minute or two. You can have the kindlized version returned to your computer, or sent directly to your kindle. There is a 10 cent charge for having it sent to your kindle. They add this to your credit card and charge you after you run up $3 bucks worth. It's free if you have the file sent to your computer but then, of course, you'll have to download directly through a USB cable.
Note, however, the kindlizing process is not perfect. It will not, for example, except docx (vista) files. It will recognize MS doc files, and text files. Regular MS.doc files translate almost perfectly to Kindle, although the table of contents for Swords of Talera was formatted with some broken lines. Other than that the formatting was perfect. Text files also translate very well into Kindle, but the kindlizing process seems to take out line breaks so you don't see a break between chapters. I fixed this for my text files by typing in a ----- after each chapter, before uploading. Kindle translated this as a line, thus giving you a break between chaps. Paragraph indents work fine in text and doc files
The one frustrating thing involves PDF files, of which I have a lot. Although the "words" from PDF files translate just fine, the formatting is often screwed up. Paragraph breaks sometimes don't show up, and page breaks are non-existent. This can affect the reading experience and for me it means I won't be routinely uploading PDF files to my kindle. Is there any way to convert PDF files to text or word?
Fortunately or unfortunately, last night, instead of writing, I spent my evening uploading public domain text and word stories to my Kindle. Project Gutenberg has a lot of public domain stuff, including some old horror, fantasy and SF that you can download to your computer as text only, then upload to your Kindle. (Remembering to type in the -----, of course)
But now I have some very cool old fantasy novels to read by the likes of David Lindsey and Lord Dunsany, and some more modern stuff by Hamilton and Carr, and even some "Spider" stuff by Norvell Page. These are things that are hard to find in print, or if you do find it you don't want to read it because the book is falling apart.
Read on!
------
------
First, battery life continues to be outstanding. I hardly ever read more than a couple of hours straight and so far that has posed no problem. And even when I leave the machine running between reading bouts, it has a sleep mode that protects battery life.
Second, and most wonderous, the process of "Kindlizing" many of the ebooks I've already downloaded from the public domain has been virtually effortless. You sign in at Amazon, go to your kindle page, where they have already assigned you an email address based on your registration email address. For example, if the email you registered at Amazon was Nomorecarrots@hotmail.com, your kindle address would be nomorecarrots@kindle.com
You then type in any email address you want kindle to recognize as acceptable, such as a home or work address. You attach files to an email from that address and send it to nomorecarrots@kindle.com. They kindlize it and return it to you. This happens within a minute or two. You can have the kindlized version returned to your computer, or sent directly to your kindle. There is a 10 cent charge for having it sent to your kindle. They add this to your credit card and charge you after you run up $3 bucks worth. It's free if you have the file sent to your computer but then, of course, you'll have to download directly through a USB cable.
Note, however, the kindlizing process is not perfect. It will not, for example, except docx (vista) files. It will recognize MS doc files, and text files. Regular MS.doc files translate almost perfectly to Kindle, although the table of contents for Swords of Talera was formatted with some broken lines. Other than that the formatting was perfect. Text files also translate very well into Kindle, but the kindlizing process seems to take out line breaks so you don't see a break between chapters. I fixed this for my text files by typing in a ----- after each chapter, before uploading. Kindle translated this as a line, thus giving you a break between chaps. Paragraph indents work fine in text and doc files
The one frustrating thing involves PDF files, of which I have a lot. Although the "words" from PDF files translate just fine, the formatting is often screwed up. Paragraph breaks sometimes don't show up, and page breaks are non-existent. This can affect the reading experience and for me it means I won't be routinely uploading PDF files to my kindle. Is there any way to convert PDF files to text or word?
Fortunately or unfortunately, last night, instead of writing, I spent my evening uploading public domain text and word stories to my Kindle. Project Gutenberg has a lot of public domain stuff, including some old horror, fantasy and SF that you can download to your computer as text only, then upload to your Kindle. (Remembering to type in the -----, of course)
But now I have some very cool old fantasy novels to read by the likes of David Lindsey and Lord Dunsany, and some more modern stuff by Hamilton and Carr, and even some "Spider" stuff by Norvell Page. These are things that are hard to find in print, or if you do find it you don't want to read it because the book is falling apart.
Read on!
------
------
Sunday, March 01, 2009
Kindle 2
Well, I broke down and bought myself a Kindle 2. It arrived Friday and I’m just about to finish reading my first book on it, Scorpio Reborn, by Kenneth Bulmer, writing under the pseudonym Alan Burt Akers. Bulmer was actually a major influence on my decision to buy a Kindle. His Dray Prescot series of Sword & Planet novels ended at #37 in the USA, but continued for a number of books more in Germany. The series was actually written in English, however, and, recently, Mushroom Books began to release the remaining volumes to English audiences. Unfortunately, they were only available as ebooks, and as much as I wanted to read them I just didn’t think I had the strength to try that task on my laptop. Then I found out there were Kindle editions of the books, and, additionally, that a lot of the classic public domain ebooks I have are, supposedly, relatively easy to "kindleize.” So I bit the bullet.
Let me say I’m glad I did. The Kindle 2 is very well balanced so it’s easy to hold. It weighs about the same as a small hardback. Not all of that is screen, of course. The screen is a little smaller than an old Ace Double Paperback, but since you can change the font size with a couple quick button presses that doesn’t pose a problem. The previous page/next page buttons are well situated for ease of use, and the menu button and small internal mouse work very well. There is a key pad at the bottom of the device, with buttons small enough so that hunting and pecking is required, but they are spaced so that you won’t hit two buttons at once unless you really have sausage fingers.
Within fifteen minutes of opening mine, and after spending only a few of those minutes looking at the manual, I was already ordering books online from Amazon’s Kindle store, and was reading. Since I have an account at Amazon, ordering books from them was very easy, and they arrived on my device in less than a minute.
As for the reading experience, it feels different from a book, although I think that feeling will dissipate as I gain experience with it. After all, I’ve been reading regular books for over 40 years. The different feeling isn’t really a barrier to enjoying an ebook this way, however. I’ve certainly enjoyed the one I’m reading first. The battery charged up pretty quickly, and I spent several hours yesterday and today reading without experiencing any problem with a low battery. I think that’s going to really make this device handy.
I worried about the difference between reading on a screen and on a page, and I have noticed one difference. During regular daylight, the Kindle screen is at least as easy if not easier to read than a paperback page. I do seem to notice a little more glare from the screen under artificial lighting, however, and I think you have to be more careful to position the Kindle under a light source than you would a regular paperback. It has not been a serious issue for me, so far.
The Kindle 2 is not a book. You can’t stick it in a back pocket and you have to be much more careful about dropping it than you would a paper book. But it also has advantages. Instead of packing 15 or 20 different books to take with me on a trip, I can just take the Kindle. It also has a read-to-you function as well, which is actually kind of nice (although I hear there are likely to be audio rights issues with that). And my fifty year old eyes sure like the ability to change font size.
All you need to hook your Kindle to your computer is a USB cable, and then you should be able to move books back and forth between the two devices, and even download music to Kindle. I haven’t done these things yet so I'll have to get back to you on those tasks. In the meantime, though, I’m off to finish my first Kindle ebook.
Happy reading to all.
-----
-----
Let me say I’m glad I did. The Kindle 2 is very well balanced so it’s easy to hold. It weighs about the same as a small hardback. Not all of that is screen, of course. The screen is a little smaller than an old Ace Double Paperback, but since you can change the font size with a couple quick button presses that doesn’t pose a problem. The previous page/next page buttons are well situated for ease of use, and the menu button and small internal mouse work very well. There is a key pad at the bottom of the device, with buttons small enough so that hunting and pecking is required, but they are spaced so that you won’t hit two buttons at once unless you really have sausage fingers.
Within fifteen minutes of opening mine, and after spending only a few of those minutes looking at the manual, I was already ordering books online from Amazon’s Kindle store, and was reading. Since I have an account at Amazon, ordering books from them was very easy, and they arrived on my device in less than a minute.
As for the reading experience, it feels different from a book, although I think that feeling will dissipate as I gain experience with it. After all, I’ve been reading regular books for over 40 years. The different feeling isn’t really a barrier to enjoying an ebook this way, however. I’ve certainly enjoyed the one I’m reading first. The battery charged up pretty quickly, and I spent several hours yesterday and today reading without experiencing any problem with a low battery. I think that’s going to really make this device handy.
I worried about the difference between reading on a screen and on a page, and I have noticed one difference. During regular daylight, the Kindle screen is at least as easy if not easier to read than a paperback page. I do seem to notice a little more glare from the screen under artificial lighting, however, and I think you have to be more careful to position the Kindle under a light source than you would a regular paperback. It has not been a serious issue for me, so far.
The Kindle 2 is not a book. You can’t stick it in a back pocket and you have to be much more careful about dropping it than you would a paper book. But it also has advantages. Instead of packing 15 or 20 different books to take with me on a trip, I can just take the Kindle. It also has a read-to-you function as well, which is actually kind of nice (although I hear there are likely to be audio rights issues with that). And my fifty year old eyes sure like the ability to change font size.
All you need to hook your Kindle to your computer is a USB cable, and then you should be able to move books back and forth between the two devices, and even download music to Kindle. I haven’t done these things yet so I'll have to get back to you on those tasks. In the meantime, though, I’m off to finish my first Kindle ebook.
Happy reading to all.
-----
-----
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)