A Weekend of Reading Contrasts

I am not entirely sure as to whether I shared this or not but this weekend, but I went "Unplugged" again. I didn't really get on the internet at all this weekend, thanks to the kind assistance of Jen. I really enjoyed doing this, and I think it came at a perfect time.

As you know, I spent all last week reading exclusively on my iPad. This included books, news, magazines, etc. - if there was reading to be done, I did it on my iPad. What did I think about my experience? Well, first, the iPad is hard to hold for reading - and I imagine there is some truth to this point with all e-readers. They demand to be utilized in a very specific way for optimal experience - something I found to be quite frustrating. You must change your reading habits to fit the device. Of course, I suppose that this speaks to the hegemony of traditional books. We are so used to interfacing with them that really our interaction with books defines how we read. Perhaps this will change over time, though. Perhaps not, though - much of our early reading is done at school, where there is a noticeable dearth of e-reader devices.

Reading text on a screen is not all that great. I know screen technology has come quite far since we had screens like this:



But, I think, a screen is still not the optimal medium to consume the written word. I remember several times over this week while reading that I shut my eyes and I could "see" the text imprinted in my retina. This gave me a slight headache and made my eyes tired far more quickly.

I found I was a less efficient reader on the iPad than I was with the text equivalents (books and magazines) I read only about 50 virtual pages on the iPad - and I made an effort to read a bit more than I usually do in the week. This was "brought home" to me this weekend when I finished two New Yorkers, and one of the best books I have read thus far this year: President Lincoln: The Duty of a Statesman, by William Lee Miller. If you are interested in Lincoln at all, this is a phenomenal read from a different (ethical/moral) perspective.



If you're interested, here's a video of the author talking about that book:



We also went to the opening of the new show at the Barry Whistler Gallery: Today I am Thankful for All I Have, featuring work by Michael Miller. The work (and how it was hung) was absolutely compelling, and it was really wonderful to see the additional space that Barry has added to his gallery.

Overall, it was a great weekend filled with surprises and joys. But not unicorns.