E-book Revolution - is It an Evolutionary Need in Digital Form?

I received my Amazon Kindle, the latest e-book reader from the online retail-giant Amazon, three weeks ago, after waiting for the arrival of the gadget for months. In a matter of minutes, I did, not only master the art – or science – of using it, but also managed to purchase few books from Kindle Store, Amazon’s own e-book store at the click of a button.

No sooner I had ordered the books than they landed in my Kindle; So, Amazon’s claim of buying a book – and receiving too - in less than a minute is not an alluring exaggeration; on the contrary, it is an amazing form of short-cut, which in turn, virtually frees the reader from the clutches of postal industry.

Kudos goes for Amazon for introducing the device; it lives up to the hype, indeed and also plays its role in reversing a suicidal trend in modern society – the lack of enthusiasm for reading books.

It is a fact that kids don’t want to read any more, no matter what you hear to the contrary in terms of statistics, unless the teachers or the subjects that they pursue, demand of them. When they need information, they just ‘google’ for it – and often get much more than they look for! If there is a risk of being caught – red-handed or in a bit more honourable manner than that – there is special software for the completion of the job, without leaving any traces behind the act; the programmes just jumble up words for you in a piece of writing in such a way that it appear to be one of your own.

For instance, say, Mary has a little lamb; the way of turning the very sentence into, “Beautiful Mary has a cute little lamb,” is not rocket science. Nor is it a literary spectacle of the highest form. The deceit lies in the choice of adjectives. That’s what most of the so-called ‘brilliant’ software does.

Adding insult to the injury, the social networking sites are mushrooming all over the internet. The addiction of kids to short-messaging is alarming; the mobile networks go with the flow by offering bundles of free-text-messaging packages in a bid to outsmart all potential rivals.

The combined impact has already taken its toll on the writing skills of the kids in the West and it may spread far and wide by social osmosis until the menace swallows up the whole world.

Against this backdrop, anything which has the potential to reverse the trend is warmly welcome.

The solution can only come in two different forms: either someone must come up with a book, with a messianic ring to it like Harry Potter or produce a gadget to rekindle the age-old dying habit.

Digital readers, with a bit of luck, may provide a glimpse of hope for frustrated educationists and parents alike.

Kids hate textbooks for different reasons. Some – not the most studious ones, of course – moan about them being too heavy to carry on their backs. There is an element of truth in it, if you look at the backpacks that they carry on the way to schools; the spectre is little short of what a mule goes through in mountainous terrain in Afghanistan, to the terms dictated by Taliban.

Others think they offer little relevance to what they are learning. There is some truth in that too; even scientific text books are full of silly colourful cartoons in the hope of amusing the learner, which in effect, induce the opposite effect. So, the publishing industry must absorb a part of the blame too.

E-book readers can address the issue to some extent, especially in the western world: first of all, people can afford to buy these devices while taking the advantage of the decline in price, in proportion to the competition among the rivals; secondly, kids love going digital and people can cash in on that sentimentality for a good cause; the devices are becoming more and more user-friendly and almost capable of simulating the act of page-turning with fingers.

Amazon Kindle, the latest arrival in the market, can store up to 3500 books, according to Amazon. If an avid book reader, like me, takes a week to read a book, he or she needs to add 70 years to her life span to finish off the stock. So, the loyal customers may not moan about the size of the memory – or the lack of it - of the gadget; it is more than enough, as it stands.

If a potential reader gets eye strain while reading a book, Kindle addresses that problem too. All you have to do is to turn its built-in speakers on; the book is read for you – line by line while pages turning themselves at the right moment. This is a pretty useful feature. If you are in bed, you can let Kindle read it for you – mimicking what our moms did during the days we used to wet nappies: you fall asleep and Kindle takes care of itself by turning the device off, while making the need of your intervention completely redundant.

The screen of Amazon Kindle is a real technological achievement. The contrast is maintained in such a way, that you feel as if you were reading a real book: the letters are so clear, thanks to the ‘electronic ink’ which produces the desirable effect. It is Wi-Fi enabled; so, you can go to any Wi-Fi hotspot to buy books or read your favourite newspapers.

At home, it is a good sleeping companion too. It weighs less than 300g and 9mm in thickness. It has its own browser, called Experimental. If your home has Wi-Fi, you can browse the internet using Amazon’s own browser while in bed. The device loads up far more quickly than a laptop does – and you are online. The drawback is you only see things in black-and-white. But the cosmetic handicap is adequately compensated by the sheer speed.

It has a built-in dictionary which allows you to find the meaning of a strange word without leaving the document. All you have to do is to take the cursor to the word in question and the meaning appears on the fly. In addition, the font size can be adjusted to the desired level.

Kindle does support PDF files; but, for obvious reasons, the preferred format is its native AZW. If PDF files come in small letters, the adjustment by Kindle is not as good as those of native files. However, with a bit of patience, PDF files can be read in a Kindle.

E-books are getting popular with readers: they can easily be purchased online and downloaded to your desktop, laptop or even Smartphone in a matter of minutes with a few mouse clicks. However, the ease of use creates a catalogue of problems for both publishers and authors. Since they can be easily copied, the authors are often deprived of their rightful income; the publishers have to be vigilant all the time for potential copyright violations. File sharing sites can bring the publishing industry to its knees due to loss of revenue, if the trend continues unabated.

So, the survival of the E-book industry is at stake, exactly like the reading nature of kids. Amazon has understood the danger from business point of view. They offer a huge collection of e-books free of charge, notably the classics.

Charles Darwin, the darling of evolution, said in his famous theory that nature selects. Herbert Spencer, his contemporary and British philosopher, coined the term, ‘The Survival of the Fittest’ to describe the same and is now attributed to the more famous of the two.

In this context, the dying impulse for reading may be an evolutionary development too - either as a consequence of some of our own acts or as a sort of warning.

Therefore, a remedy in revolutionary form is needed before academic coins a term that may resonate with, “The Survival of the Thickest”. Let’s hope e-books – and readers – can lower the stakes for the future generations.

- Asian Tribune -