The tutor has mulled this issue for awhile.  Has the time come to discuss it?

More and more I’m hearing about reading tablets – tablets that display a book a page at a time.  When you’ve finished that page, you do some action that “flips” to the next page.  Having seen one, I seem to remember that the page content doesn’t just change to the new words.  Rather, there actually is some graphical effect that, for a split second, mimics a page flip.  Then, you’re on the next page.

Often, you might expect the younger generation to embrace a new gadget first. Interestingly, in my experience, the main proponents of these tablets are a generation older than I am.

The fans of the reading tablet make some compelling points.  You can carry hundreds of books in one tablet.  Since it’s always backlit, you can read from it even in the dark. There are numerous other advantages.

I confess I’m not tempted to buy a reading tablet.  From a logical point of view, perhaps I should be.

I haven’t read fiction for many years.  I do read books about computer programming.  I also do lots of “looking up” concepts or definitions from books.  Of course, some topics I look up on the internet.

Personally, I prefer to read from paper rather than a screen.  I like broad, soft cover books that take the shape of my lap when I’m lying back on the couch.  (I think) a book decorates a table.  If you are involved in several of them, you can leave them separately in various rooms, so there is one at hand whichever room you happen to be having your coffee.

Books take up space, of course, whereas e-books don’t.  With the current trend of miniaturization, every human being receives the opportunity to live in less space. Given how many human beings share the planet, the trend makes sense.

Yet, there are huge, open spaces where virtually no one wants to be, just as there are shelves of textbooks that few people want to read.  The dusty old academic loves to be just there, in that deserted room, surrounded by shelves of abandoned textbooks, inhaling that scent of paper.

I guess this blog will never be in print:)

Jack of Oracle Tutoring by Jack and Diane, Campbell River, BC.