The Zen of Self Realization

E-Readers

I have for several years now been seeing these E-Readers, beginning with the Kindle, which a friend of mine showed me several years ago. I was extremely impressed with the clarity of the screen with its “liquid ink” as they called it back then. I was also impressed with the amount of material that was available to the Kindle to download, making an entire library, including periodicals and newsprint available anytime, anywhere.

Now you can find a number of readers of every different shape, size, and even color as opposed to the monochrome. They now access the web, and use wi-fi, and some even double as GPS, and if you include the i-pad as an e-reader then function is almost limitless.

I however have yet to see one that I can use effectively. Additionally, I finally believe I have figured out why.

I realized in law school that I read very slowly, however when I read something it stays with me and I have amazing recall of what I have read. A perfect example of this can be seen contrasting my wife and my reading practices. A novel by one of our favorite authors comes out… she reads it in a couple of days, I however take weeks. But, after reading the novel she promptly forgets much, with the exception of the main story lines, and she is happy to read the same novel several times.. In contrast, while I take forever to read it, after reading I have a fairly detailed memory of the story, and I have no interest in reading it again, because there is nothing new.

The other thing I realized in law school was that the reason I may read so slow, and the reason for a notable memory of what I read may be because I have at least somewhat of a photographic memory. What I mean by that is that when I am trying to remember something I have read in a book I can usually remember whether it was on the right or left hand page. Moreover, I can usually remember approximately where on the page what I am referring to (i.e. top, 2nd paragraph toward the right, etc…) Additionally, I often use a memory of if it comes before or after a particular page as I thumb through to locate what I am looking for.

Well, this gets me to my issue with e-readers, and for that matter reading on the computer generally.

I always wondered why I didn’t have the same recall of what I read online in comparison to what I read in a book. I believe this issue is the way my memory works, i.e. quasi-photographically. See when you read on a computer there are no visual markers for the words. The words scroll and can be moved around on the computer screen. For that reason I lose the function of my photographically based memory, because there is not a right and left, top or bottom consistently. In fact changing between a 4:3 screen and a 16:9 screen can have a dramatic effect on where the words appear physically even within the sentence.

The same is true with e-readers. Because most have a single screen with a single image that “flips” like a page rather than scrolling I also loose that photographic function of my memory. (Yes there are a couple of e-readers who have realized that people want the right and left function and have produced readers with two screens.) However, even with that I loose the ability to flip through the book remembering if it was a little bit before this section, or way after this page…etc….

I have seen some potential in some screens developed in the last few years. These screens are about the thickness of 3-5 sheets of paper, but are flexible and can hold an image without power. Now I can imagine an e-reader with 10-20 of these screens double sided so you can actually physically flip through pages, and have all the visual cues that I am used to with a paper and ink book.

Obviously I have no scientific proof for the reason I don’t like e-readers. And I really wish I could read on them, as I am an avid reader, love to sit down with a good book, and find myself very envious of those who can read on the readers. But at least I now think I have the reason I can’t.

Clint