Do Pixels Stick?

Believe it or not I can still remember the first book I read and it was a book about sailing. It was a simple mystery story and I think it was called The Enchanted Island. I remember thinking the name was the Enchanted IS-Land! I had no idea what an 'is-land' was, but I plugged on anyway. There was  another sentence that has also stayed with me all these years.That sentence read, "Our head was a bucket". I now know the toilet on a boat is called the 'head'! The marine toilet on old wooded sailing ships was located at the bow of the ship. Thus, if you had to go you went to the head or front of the ship to do your duty. I did not know that at the time and I could never figure out what "Our head was a bucket" really meant!

The last few years I have been using an e-reader for convenience and portability. Going away for a few weeks and, not having to carry a number of recreational paper books in my luggage, is just fantastic. But I found over the years I have developed an interesting duality.

Currently, I am re-reading a book by Andrew H. Malcolm - The Canadians. It has been in my library for a number of years and I finally decided it was time to page through it again. Since it was first published in 1985 I am sure some of the information is no longer relevant. However, it is interesting to watch the news and then see what Mr. Malcolm had to say "away back then". "If one cannot enjoy reading a book over and over again, there is no use in reading at all." Oscar Wilde

The pattern I have developed is to use my Kobo Arc 7 for pleasure reading and  a paper book for more serious reading. Since I have become aware of this switching back and forth I tried to fathom the reason. I find I can read more deeply with a paper book. It seems I waste a lot of time turning "pages" on my Kobo and, because I do it frequently, it creates a distraction and is disruptive.  I recently read that Ann Mangen, of Stavanger University in Norway, specializes doing research on the impact of material vs. technical interfaces. She researches the different effect on the reader depending on whether they are reading a paper book or from a screen. She discovered that those reading from a screen were significantly worse in recalling information than those who used a paper book. The people in her research did much better recalling things if they read it on paper!

One explanation might be that scrolling interruptions tend to remove information from our short term memory. On the other hand reading from a book produces a foundation for long-term memories and knowledge. Usually with my books I will read with a pen or pencil in hand and underline, or margin scribble to help me remember. I know they are working some of these things into our devices, but it often takes some time to  thumb to the effect you want. With a pencil in hand it takes a second, and indeed impresses the thought more deeply in the mind. But you might not want to read a book when I am finished with it! Perhaps because I have always been a reader of books I still prefer them for deep reading. Today's generation might be able some day to do the same with  a screen reader in the future.

If my experience is typical, then I don't think books, newspapers and magazines will disappear in my life time. Perhaps, many years from now, and after many new inventions, who can tell? But today, only about 30% of the books sold are e-books and only 6% use e-books exclusively. Besides, my library in the cloud does not look nearly as sharp as my library on the shelves in my 'manctuary'.

And that's Dick's View of the World this Week

Did you Know? We now have robots that can pick only the ripe oranges from the tree and ovens that will never burn another meal. It's called progress!