But Is it a Book?

Guanaguanare said...
Just found this post, Louis. You are making me VERY interested...that e-book feature sounds great! Please tell us more as you explore it.
https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMmy_i5U59U-V43tH_w5Tn49_MKTlWL0nZ0ki2Lw_hKrY_B7WIq3sxE8b7EpW-2NEgt1SrmprjKkvWFMiH2AolIfT5kEBUSXxnohiCmqmilwM196WnbPwQnFmeXU8CnSBrnVyM7wkpBN8e/s1600/iPad.jpg

Two internet friends, Ric and "Guanaguanare" who are serious bibliophiles recently indicated their strong interest in, but some reservations about the iPad as an e-book reader. Knowing that these two very cultured gentlemen do not read books only for their content but as a sensual experience as well, savoring the feel of the book, its binding, its entire provenance, I decided to take my iPad for a "road test" today, to see how it measures up, not just as a reading device, but as a book, as they might regard a book and as I used to, and still do, myself.

I took my iPad with me to the doctor's office today. I would see if it would withstand the challenge from the vivid illustrated covers of the usual magazines in a doctor's office, assuming that they still had covers. To see if in spite of being an electronic gadget without the warmth of a bound book it would provide enough of a sustainable booklike experience to resist the easy, short articles better suited to the distractions and anxiety of a medical waitingroom than a book. I also assumed that wifi would not be available there so I wouldn't be tempted to use any of the myriad other capabilities of the iPad, so it would be a book and nothing else but a book.

My electronic bookcase contains just two books at the moment: James Joyce's Ulysses and Winnie the Pooh. Just in case you are wondering about my literary taste, let me say that Winnie the Pooh comes pre-loaded with every iPad, a manifestation of executive power, its inclusion being the personal decision it seems of Apple's CEO Steve Jobs himself, who happens to like Winnie the Pooh. And while at first I wondered about his choice, I recalled that Winnie is prized highly by the eminently erudite Ric who wrote a blog about his delight in it:

http://richernandez.wordpress.com/2009/12/25/my-pooh-christmas/

It turns out that those two books were a good selection.

Winnie the Pooh showed off the capability of the iPad to render illustrations beautifully and faithfully, in color, equal to the printed book.



Ulysses could be enjoyed as I would have done with the printed book, flipping back and forth between virtual pages very naturally with my finger, not with a button or from a menu.



Without interrupting the flow of the book, with a press of my finger I could call up the meaning of any of its numerous unusual words or highlight with a virtual yellow highlighter any remarkable passage I might want to return to. But, while I would normally cringe at defacing a book, those markings can be completely deleted. I could also select passages for pasting into a document.


The iPad nestled comfortably on my lap as I read, again, just like a book, and didn't get hot like a laptop. The pages seemed to have the tint and texture of paper and they seemed to curve realistically inward towards the spine of the book. The black frame of the screen around the three-dimensional representation of the leaves of the book disappeared from one's consciousness, leaving nothing but the impression of holding a real book.

Adding a leather jacket to the iPad, which I intend to do, will be the final touch that makes it easy to achieve that "willing suspension of disbelief" (Coleridge) in this case to immerse oneself as fully in an e-book as one would in a bound book with paper pages. In a doctor's office as in bed.



I cannot imagine anyone taking a beautiful but hefty bound "Complete Works of William Shakespeare" to bed to read one of his sonnets, but one might be tempted to cosy up with a slender iPad.