This Christmas, my husband got an iPad from his father, so I have got to play around with it a little bit. Because the e-reader aspect of the device is just one small part I had not really given it much thought before. This article got me thinking about how big of a change the iPad and e-readers in general have changed publishing.
Once again while reading this, I came to realize how many people that are in the technology industry are big jerks. Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, and now the people at Amazon. It was distressing to see what they were doing to publishers. Publishers are such an important part of an author's writing life, and they are trying to take out this important middleman. It makes me wonder what the consequences will be if they succeed at doing this.
Looking at e-readers from the point-of-view of someone who loves to read, I am now starting to see the benefits to their existence. The hatred that I have had against them since the beginning is slowly starting to wear away. In the article one statistic really shocked me, and hurt me as a future English teacher. Steve Jobs said, "Forty per cent of the people in the U.S. read one book or less last year." This broke my heart. It is rare for me to not be reading a book at all times and I usually get through one a month, even with my busy schedule. Reading is such a huge part of my life that I can't image that many people not reading. Later in the article it is said that "Kindle users 'buy 3.1 times as many books as they did twelve months ago.'" That is a big jump! E-readers are really helping people to read more!
I was also really upset about that statistic. I was aware that the majority of the population doesn't read as much as the average English teacher, but I was shocked at how little people actually do read. I think we should all work really hard to promote reading outside of the classroom.
ReplyDeleteThat statistic really hurt me too. I can't believe so many people read so little, even though I see it all the time with my dad. Hopefully they are at least reading a newspaper or magazine instead of just sitting in front of the T.V. or computer and letting their brains lot. I'm still not crazy about using e-books for pleasure reading, but I would definitely like them more if it helped more people read.
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