Quang has thrown away unwanted books before, but he didn’t chuck them in a trash can. He just clicked a button and ““ in a flash ““ the e-books vanished from his iPad library. The second-year biology student, who asked that his last name not be used to protect his identity, said the other e-books he kept have left him uneasy.
“I’m not sure if it’s illegal or not, but I download (free e-books) directly from the browser,” Quang said. “I don’t torrent though.”
This ambiguity, which would probably be unthinkable in a Barnes and Noble, parallels the legal gray area sometimes surrounding digital music. After all, when forms of intellectual property turn digital, the economic framework doesn’t always evolve as quickly.
For other students, free e-books have lessened the financial burden of college. The Kindle that fifth-year English student Jennifer Herrenkohl received for her birthday has helped her save her money on school books. She finds most of her e-books on the Amazon Kindle store and at Project Gutenberg, which legally offers thousands of free works.
“A Kindle costs as much as one (quarter’s worth) of books, maybe even less,” Herrenkohl said. “And I can’t afford to pay bookstore prices.”
Other changes have crept into the electronic reading experience. Quang said he wears protective glasses to relieve the strain of staring at the iPad screen which, unlike new e-readers, doesn’t use the eye-friendly e-ink.
Many users enjoy the convenience of e-books. With her library condensed into the space of a notebook, Herrenkohl doesn’t have to lug heavy books around ““ a relief after she injured her back, she said.
Quang said he uses his iPad for quick document searches and for reading books for his North Campus classes because of the tablet’s annotate and highlight features.
But when it comes to leisure reading or chemistry problems, Quang depends on the physical book.
“When I’m reading on my iPad, I have like 20 games and Internet connection, so I get more easily distracted. I think, “˜Hey, let’s check my newsfeed on Facebook. I can bookmark the page I’m reading and switch to the Facebook app,'” Quang said. “The hard copy keeps you more focused, you don’t have anything else to distract you.”
Professor of information studies Johanna Drucker said the problem lies in the tablet’s multi-purpose nature, its main selling point. She said at the moment, traditional books provide a more productive milieu.
“(With digital readers) there’s a temptation to come and go to other tasks … (which) factors into the way we read. It’s an endless temptation device,” Drucker said.
According to Herrenkohl, the tactile nature of books makes it easier to find her spot and take notes.
“You can take notes on the Kindle, but I feel like the way we’ve learned to read and … take notes is hard to translate to an electronic device,” she said.
Cognitive cues that guide how people read physical books are often absent in e-books, Drucker said. A book’s cover, spine, color, size and text style affect reader’s expectations of the story within it, often subconsciously. These subtle indicators are often seen as extraneous to the act of reading, which is a misconception, according to Drucker.
“When we process language, we process it through an embodied experience,” she said. “We’re not machines when we read.”
When students buy a book, they assume it fully belongs to them; but legal issues with e-books have threatened this security in the past. Two years ago, Amazon pulled copies of George Orwell’s “Animal Farm” and “1984” from customers’ Kindles after discovering that the publisher did not own the rights to the material. Some customers connected the event to a modern Orwellian nightmare: Overnight, their books disappeared, erased remotely .
Still, e-readers and tablets show no sign of losing technological (and popular) momentum. Kindle Fire ““ the e-reader’s 14th model since 2007 ““ began shipping Monday. The new Nook Tablet by Barnes and Noble ships Friday. Both promise to be lighter, faster and better than earlier versions.
According to Drucker, the “ping life,” wrought with constant notifications and updates from electronic devices, is reshaping the act of reading.
“When I was young, I used to read novels and sit quietly for a long afternoon and the mail would come through the mail slot at 3:30 every afternoon,” Drucker said. “That’s all changed now.”