SP: English Study Group

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/aug/21/observer-editorial-celebration-of-kindle

The Kindle is lifting the spirits of a trade whose mood, traditionally, runs the gamut from the apocalyptic to the merely suicidal

The Observer, Sunday 21 August 2011

Amid the encircling gloom of riot-torn streets and economic meltdown, there is one silver lining to celebrate. Young and old are reading as never before. 2011, the year of the ebook, has become the summer of the Kindle. On planes, trains and automobiles, we are witnessing a sea change in our reading habits unprecedented since Gutenberg.

Once upon a time, it was said that the virtual book could have no answer to the three Bs (beach, bath and bed). But lately, here at the Observer, we detect a trend in reading that's exposing the digital book to sand, soap and seduction. Popular Kindle reading has reached a tipping point. The average UK shopper now spends £4 per month on ebooks and 53% of Kindle users say they are now reading more books than ever before. Better still, grumpy bibliophiles are falling in love with the Kindle's sleek, reader-friendly lines, its lovely facsimile of the printed page and, yes, its literary chic.

Across the Atlantic, sales of the Kindle and its many rivals (especially the Nook and the i-Pad) have become a bonanza for publishers. Ebook sales are nudging $1,000m, a 200% increase on 2009. In a dire domestic economy, American publishers are, for once, not moaning about sales figures. Worldwide, one-third of the planet's seven billion inhabitants use "some kind of English", according to the British Council, a huge potential audience for the digitised text. Across the English-speaking world, the Kindle is lifting the spirits of a trade whose mood, traditionally, runs the gamut from the apocalyptic to the merely suicidal.

And why not? The Kindle is the perfect travelling companion. You can load it with much of your favourite reading, plus almost any new title whose reviews inspire your curiosity. Travelling light, the Kindle reader can have an entire library, either pop or classical, Dan Brown or Dickens, for instant perusal. Agreed: you cannot share a Kindle text with a friend as freely as that dogeared paperback at the bottom of your carry-on baggage, but since when did the novels of Stieg Larsson weigh in at less than a carton of Marlboro?

Meanwhile, the future of the thing Caxton called the "boke" is, we believe, secure. Ebooks, now rapidly replacing mass-market editions, may have the paradoxical effect of sponsoring more and better hardback editions. History tells us that the printing press did not make the manuscript redundant, nor did the typewriter eliminate the fountain or the ballpoint pen. Technological change is discontinuous. The scribes who wrote TheAnglo-Saxon Chronicle did not invent the printing press. The old book world will not supply the pioneers of future content delivery. But the book endures.

As Umberto Eco put it recently: "The book is like the spoon, the hammer, the wheel. Once invented, it cannot be improved." The Kindle, in fact, sends us back to Caxton. Today, everyone has to read. In order to read, you need a medium. Why not start with an e-reader ?

As millions of summer holiday makers shuffle through those interminable security procedures that crush the joy of travel, it's comforting to think that, at least in our imaginations, we have been liberated by the Kindle: this is a golden age of reading.

Q1: Do you agree with the author that the golden time of reading is coming? What’s your opinion about e-book?

Q2: Are you an e-reader? Or you prefer hard copies? Share your reading habits with us---how do you get reading resource? From library, form book store or form internet?