E-Book Boom Changes Book Selling And Publishing

This holiday season electronic books sold more than printed books sales on-line. That eBooks have gained a momentum as it brings in the change in reading habits, is without a doubt. The referenced article below had a interesting take on why  things are really changing. Until the tablets came out, an argument offered for printed books was that parents would like to introduce kids with very well illustrated books. Now we have an equivalent to a living book, in almost the same format as a printed book. A tablet is handled much like a book yet can bring in higher value add in terms of living illustration! Illustrations that could be animated, cartoons, videos, movies and what have you! There's no doubt printed books would continue for some time, until a generation who started their reading with tablets/eReaders takes over and the age of the Gutenberg would be over!

E-Book Boom Changes Book Selling And Publishing : NPR

Reading on Paper is Faster than Reading on iPad or Kindle.

Though done with a small sample, this study seems to say reading on paper is faster than on Kindle 2 or on iPad with iBook application. PC World has an article about it here. the 24 people rated the reading experience about the same and the comprehension was similar through any of  the medium. The PC monitor was uniformly hated. probably because, as was pointed out by some, it reminded of the workspace.

It will be really interesting to find out why reading on paper is faster. of course, you would need a bigger study to establish that this is really so. the speed difference recorded was quite significant at 10% or thereabouts. There was a speed difference between reading Kindle 2 and the iPad. Kindle 2 came out to be slower even though the reading experience on it is closest to reading on paper.

Can the whole thing be due to the fact that reading a printed book is associated with relaxation, absence of stress, that makes the difference! This experiment was about reading short stories of Hemingway. Would reading text book, self development books and other such serious books give us a different result because of that association! Reading any of these books, may not be as relaxing an experience even on paper.