How I Read, and Why

My reading habits, as I’m sure it is the same for many, span across different platforms for different contexts. Both physical media and e-reading provides people with a choice to choose a medium that works better for them in different contexts. Before e-readers, e-books, or even screens in general, physical media was the only way to read news, books, etc. I think sometimes physical media constricts readers, while e-reading has to ability to expand the user’s experience through searchability, portability and sometimes a dialogue with the author.  

That being said, I love physical books. Their appearance tells a story – the ear marked corners, the stains on the pages, the worn cover, the creased spine. Each book I have on my shelf has a story about where and when I read it, and their unique physical features tell that story. I prefer reading non-fiction and fiction novels in physical book form for this reason. I remember fond memories about my experience reading by looking at a particular book’s physical appearance. Two summers ago, I had an internship in North York and commuted over an hour there and back every day for four and a half months (I read a lot of books). On my first day, I brought Dark Places by Gillian Flynn for the bus ride, hoping it would distract me from the extreme nervousness I felt. My mug lid wasn’t screwed on properly and I spilled coffee all over myself (luckily I was wearing a jacket), as well as my book. Dark Places still sits on my shelf, coffee stains and all, and reminds me of my first day at that job (fortunately, the bad start to my day didn’t reflect the rest of my day). In “E-Books and the Digital Future” by Ted Striphas, he discusses Silberman and says “[e-books] fail because they fail to duplicate the serendipitous flaws and minor variations that he believes imbue industrially manufactured printed books with warmth, difference and depth” (p. 24). This is one of the aspects I enjoy about printed books – their uniqueness and quirks. I feel that e-books remove this from the experience of reading and instead compress and minimize these aspects into a digital file.

I don’t own an e-reader, but I have read books on my mom’s tablet. When I look at her tablet, I don’t think “Ah, I remember that time I read the e-book of Secret Daughter on the beach in Mexico – good times.” The media form is what dictates my memory. Her tablet is more than just an e-reader, it has many functions and purposes. Books, however, have one main function – to be read. Kirschenbaum (2004) says that digital interfaces “embody temporal, haptic and cognitive elements.” I think that is why I prefer physical books over digital books when reading for leisure. In my opinion, the form and characteristics of physical books is simpler to navigate than the different icons, tabs and settings on the interface of an e-book.

However, when it comes to my education, I mainly read texts on screen. My course texts largely have been in online format, mostly journal articles. I come from a Communication and Technology undergrad program and many of my professors felt that textbooks in this field are redundant because it is fluid and rapidly changing. Similarly at the iSchool, all of my texts so far have been online journal articles. Despite this, I still write all my reading and lecture notes in a notebook. I find digital texts in education to be useful because I can search within the document for keywords. In a physical textbook, I can look in the index for keywords that direct me to a page, but I might not find exactly what I’m looking for and it might take me longer.

In the study “Slightly fewer Americans are reading print books, new survey finds” by Pew Research Centre, Rainie and Perrin (2015) find that from 2011 – 2015, reading of print books slightly decreased, while the reading of e-books slightly increased – although there is still about 40% difference between the two (physical books being more popular than e-books). Since starting undergrad in 2012, I’ve read fewer physical books during the school year because I don’t have time to read for leisure, but I read majority of my school texts electronically. In this case, my reading habits are similar to Rainie and Perrin’s findings.  

In addition, I read news online, such as articles from CBC, the Globe and Mail, and Twitter. Like television, “breaking news” stories can be documented live online. I like being able to follow a news story as it is happening, rather than reading about it in the newspaper the next morning. Another study conducted by Pew Research Centre, “The Reading Experience,” found that people reading mobile news prefer it to have a “print like” appearance (Journalism and Media Staff, 2015). I found this interesting because even though people read news online, they still want it to resemble a newspaper.

I’ve never reflected upon the different ways I read and find it interesting to see the variation among genres and circumstances. This self reflection made me realize the different experiences I receive when I read digital content vs. print. I find I get lost in my own world when it’s just me and a book, but when I read digital content, I become distracted by outside sources. I'm looking forward to reading my blogging group member’s posts to see how their reading habits differ and compare to mine.

References

Journalism and Media Staff. “The Reading Experience.” Pew Research Centre. December 11, 2012. http://www.journalism.org/2012/12/11/reading-experience/

Kirschenbaum, Matthew G. "'So the Colors Cover the Wires': Interface, Aesthetics, and Usability." In A Companion to Digital Humanities, edited by Susan Schreibman, Ray Siemens, and John Unsworth. Oxford: Blackwell, 2004. http://www.digitalhumanities.org/companion/

Rainie, Lee, & Perrin, Andrew. “Slightly fewer Americans are reading print books, new survey finds.” Pew Research Centre. October 19, 2015. http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2015/10/19/slightly-fewer-americans-are-reading-print-books-new-survey-finds/

Striphas, Ted. "E-Books and the Digital Future." In The Late Age of Print: Everyday Book Culture from Consumerism to Control. New York: Columbia University Press, 2009.