Sunday 25 October 2009

Am I a dinosaur?

Probably. I still do not own a mobile 'phone (or know how to use one). I still do not own an MP3 player (but I have never felt the need to be entertained by mobile noise of my own choosing). I have yet to discover how to use the USB thing. I cannot upload photographs (that has something to do with the fact that I am still trying to work out how to use the camera - something I am really not terribly interested in. I will get to that when I feel the need to use it. ) I am not really a terribly technical person.
I did manage to scrape a pass in physics at school. The subject bored me. Perhaps I would have felt differently if it had been well taught but I would have preferred memorising Latin declensions to formulae about weight and velocity.
So lately we have come to the e-book thing...I have been re-thinking, or perhaps thinking again, about the e-book issue. I think I can see the attraction. You have the little machine with the little screen and you can put books inside the little machine and then read them on the little screen. Right? I suppose so. I have yet to find out. I do not like scrolling backwards and forwards on the computer so I suspect I would find it equally irritating to try and read this way. It may work. I would use it if it was the only way to read the book but I am not sure I would enjoy the process as much.
There have been 'talking books' for the vision impaired for years. The selection is now much wider than it used to be - and rightly so. (There used to be a time when well meaning people so seriously restricted what the visually impaired person had access to they might just as well have stuck with 'the classics' - now kids get Harry Potter and Captain Underpants.) Talking books however still require more concentration than visual reading... miss a bit because your attention is distracted and you cannot go back to it the way a visual reader does. It is not as comfortable as a book sort of book - but braille is perhaps worse. That takes volumes and volumes.
Then there is the small problem of power and equipment failure and....well I have muttered about these things before.
Then there is the other problem. I was curled up in bed last night reading "The Complaints" (Ian Rankin) . I needed the bedside light by then but I did not need a machine. A book is still a book. I could turn the page and, somehow, there is a difference between turning the page and scrolling down. Perhaps I should just have been born fifty years earlier?

2 comments:

Unknown said...

I'm with you to the death on e-books, but I'll have to disagree majorly on mp3 players. If you had to commute an hour there and back five times a week, I'm sure you would appreciate having your private orchestra in your pocket!

catdownunder said...

Not opposed to MP3s at all - just have not yet felt the need for one. It may have something to do with the fact that I associate them with the noise that my nephews seem to prefer (although I believe that is relatively conservative as modern 'music' goes) - but it is more likely to be because I actually quite like peace and quiet and my own thoughts - terribly arrogant of me!