Euro-horror guru and Throat Sprockets author Tim Lucas has written an interesting entry over at Video WatchBlog. I'll post an edited quote:
"I sincerely believe that while people read books and magazines, they surf the internet ... [W]hen I feel like reading print, I grab the one book or magazine I want to read; I don't grab an armful and then flip through them until I find something that holds my flighty attention, which I then drop after a minute or two's perusal."
I fully agree with this. It has parallels in my writing too: this year I've written about 30,000 words in my blog, but it's all very shallow; meanwhile I've written (er) considerably less of my novel but it's carefully thought out and quite well written.
The Internet is a vast sea of words we can half pay attention to. A book is a much smaller gathering of letters that holds our attention fully. Ever disappeared into a single website as thoroughly as into a single book?
Posted by pearce at August 29, 2006 2:45 PM"Ever disappeared into a single website as thoroughly as into a single book?"
Only a couple really - and most of them have ended up being published as books in the end. In particular I'm thinking of the Mixerman Chronicals which were on the pro-audio web quite some time ago... they're now available as a hard copy book - which is how I would prefer to read it!
In general I agree - and I would say at least part of that is the general extra amount of strain reading on a monitor (or digital display) causes. I think this is one of the main issues which people have in regards to the idea of e-books - personally half the point of a book is it's presentation and it's tactile feel.
Now I'm just rambling!!
[Got a complete collection of Bruce Sterlings "Shaper/Mechanist" stuff off trademe recently]
I love second hand books. I like it when someone has written their name in it, or left some kind of unusual bookmark in it.
My copy of The Job has "Bill Direen" written in it and an old piece of tin-foil as a bookmark. I like that. Some will know why.
Posted by: Pearce at August 29, 2006 3:03 PMHehe - Bills a pretty famous guy in NZ :-) Was round at the beginning of the entire Flying Nun scene but now is working on writing and poetry!
I find this just class - thats a great find!
http://www.flyingnun.co.nz/archive_site/bands/general/billdireen.html
Posted by: Scott C at August 29, 2006 4:18 PMHe was also my first-year English tutor. :-)
Posted by: Pearce at August 29, 2006 4:41 PMThere's a good book on web design that basically takes this idea as its first premise. At least that no one's going to start at the top and methodically read through your site if they're there looking for information. They'll bounce around looking at the things that catch their attention and click the first link that looks useful without even reading the other options... Sometimes.
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