Writer's Corner: An E-Reader Remains Loyal To Physical Books
. Carr argues that technology is literally changing the way we think, limiting our ability to contemplate deeply, and instead skimming topics at the surface “like a jet ski on the waves.”Ironically, we may actually be reading and writing more than we did before the advent of the iGadget and widespread use of the internet, but the value of our reading has most certainly changed. Many of us no longer sink into a comfortable couch with an old copy of Charles Dickens to contemplate the human condition of Little Nell, or to wonder what in hell happened to Philip Roth as a child to conjure up such a tale as American Pastoral. Instead, we reject the physical pleasure of a book and skim about in the virtual wasteland of reading material offered up instantaneously with panache and style by Google and others.
My nine year-old daughter Lizzie, however, seems to be a new age kind of Renaissance child, one who certainly enjoys the computer, but prefers the tactile pleasure of a book. She has reveled in the physical pleasure of books, as well as the educational value of them since she was an infant.