Wednesday, April 13, 2011 Lethbridge

5:00 am tag: Morning Musings

We are heading into another spell of cold weather with more snow in the forecast. Today I will actually try reading a couple of books with my iPad. I want to try both a novel ("The Picture of Dorian Gray") as well as a non-fiction book ("Information").

Reading (i.e. studying) Gilbert Strang's textbook, "An Introduction to Linear Algebra" provides an interesting contrast. In this case it seems necessary to have a pen and paper in hand and to do many of the exercises. The book may also be read in conjunction with a set of videos of the actual lectures that Strang gave at MIT.

I wonder where software packages such as Facebook and Twitter fit in to the idea of a "reading club" where a group of people get together and discuss a particular book. The new ereaders seem to provide new options such as sharing comments and underlined passages. This does raise the perennial debate of breadth versus depth. But it also enlarges the variety of personal choices and preferences that people have.

Another dimension is the emergence of manga which is a blend of comic book and literature.

And then there are movies (of books) and live theatre. Different modalities for different folks.

Let the good times roll.

7:50 am tags: Technology, Literature

I have read the first two chapters of "The Picture of Dorian Gray" using the iBook file.

First, the medium. My impression is very favorable. I found I liked holding the iPad easier and more comfortable than holding a book. I loved the way the screen changed as I "turned" the page. I also found that I was soon using the yellow highlighting feature regularly. But I am not sure that I fully understand how to quickly find a particular highlighted text.

Second, the message. This is a great story! It totally captured me on the first page and I remain captivated. I cannot believe that it has taken me this long to get around to finally reading something by Oscar Wilde.

Third, this web page. I have just tried to see if I could add more than one ID to a heading and then branch to either ID from the Activity page. Yes, it worked fine.

Addendum: (7:50 PM)

I spent a couple of hours reading "Information" by James Gleick on my iPad. I love the highlighting feature.

Then during the afternoon I spent a couple of hours browsing apps and discovered iBird for the iPad. This looks like a lot of fun.

Finally, I purchased "Autobiography of Mark Twain: The Complete and Authoritative Edition, Volume 1" [Kindle Edition] $9.79 I saw the hard cover version of this book while we were in Florida but the price of the ebook is very attractive, and I am beginning to like the highlighting feature.

More Addendum: (10:30 PM)

It took 2 hours to download the iBird app to my iPad. But I am now looking forward to using it. It is the first heavy-duty app that I have put on the iPad. The cost has been reduced from $30. to $15. and is now similar to that of a good book.