Does Online Reading Count?

I love my NY Times Kindle subscription but Amazon really needs to add a feature that lets you quickly forward links to articles via e-mail.  I frequently e-mail links to myself so that I won't forget to blog about them.  I meant to write a post about this article earlier in the week and it completely slipped through the cracks on me...

The article is called "Literacy Debate: Online, R U Really Reading?" and it adds to the discussion of how to properly define "reading" in a mostly online age.  My favorite excerpt is:

Web proponents believe that strong readers on the Web may eventually surpass those who rely on books. Reading five Web sites, an op-ed article and a blog post or two, experts say, can be more enriching than reading one book.

I'm finding this to be particularly true with my Kindle.  Ever since I got it I know I've been spending more time reading, but it's not just books.  My NY Times subscription is outstanding and it often leads me to check out other websites via the Kindle's browser.  During those side trips I often end up reading more content on these other sites (e.g., articles, blog posts, etc.).  Before I know it, I've lost an hour or two and still have much of the day's paper to go.

For some reason I feel like I've accomplished and learned much, much more after an evening of this than in one where I've spent a couple of hours reading portions of one or two books.  It's part of that whole "info snacking" problem Jeff Bezos says we all have; the Kindle is supposed to help us focus more on serious reading and not info snacking, but I'm finding it contributes to both.

P.S. -- This is a very interesting issue for us book publishers to think about, especially when plotting our e-content strategies.  I believe the key is to embrace this behavior and build it into your e-content models rather than trying to fight it.

Comments

[mastewal gezahegn]

i agree hundred percent when online i seem to get more info in a short amount of time then reading a one sided book but i was raised on the computer i was born in the 90's haha