Queereaders discussion

"It takes the average reader just seven hours to read the final book in Suzanne Collins's "Hunger Games" trilogy on the Kobo e-reader—about 57 pages an hour. Nearly 18,000 Kindle readers have highlighted the same line from the second book in the series: "Because sometimes things happen to people and they're not equipped to deal with them." And on Barnes & Noble's Nook, the first thing that most readers do upon finishing the first "Hunger Games" book is to download the next one.

In the past, publishers and authors had no way of knowing what happens when a reader sits down with a book. Does the reader quit after three pages, or finish it in a single sitting? Do most readers skip over the introduction, or read it closely, underlining passages and scrawling notes in the margins? Now, e-books are providing a glimpse into the story behind the sales figures, revealing not only how many people buy particular books, but how intensely they read them..."

Rest of article here:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001...

This article claims e-reading people tend to read more than print book readers:

http://libraries.pewinternet.org/2012...

I still love print books and have plenty of them, but I also enjoy my e-reader, particularly while traveling or during downtime at work.

It is a little disconcerting to find certain passages already highlighted while I'm reading. Amazon keeps track of the most popular quotes.

I read almost exclusively on my ereader now. My home is very small and simply from a space management perspective, it's been great. I don't have to thin the bookshelves anymore. I turned off the option to see what others have annotated on my kindle as I found that distracting. I do like being able to save my own notes and underlines.

Tim, you took the words right out of my... fingers, I guess. I, too, love my ereader. The space-saving is great. I also turned off the highlighting (I never liked to buy used books that had been highlighted for the same reason--I end up yanked out of the narrative wondering why people liked that particular line, etc.) and I also annotate my own. In fact, if the ebook is from an indie writer, I often can't help myself, I go into beta-reading mode. Then I offer my comments to the author. This doesn't always go over well, as you might imagine. I'm just OCD that way, though, I can't help myself.

Interesting article. I know that one of my favourite things about my Kindle is the fact that I can easily highlight things--I'm constantly taking notes from everything I read, and otherwise I have to write it all out by hand. Very tedious.

I'd have to disagree with one part, though:

"For centuries, reading has largely been a solitary and private act, an intimate exchange between the reader and the words on the page. But the rise of digital books has prompted a profound shift in the way we read, transforming the activity into something measurable and quasi-public."

According to what I've heard, reading used to be, if not a public activity, at least a group one. People would listen to their friends and family read aloud from books. Reading in private was usually also done out loud. Apparently, reading in your head is a fairly recent development.