Thank you for such lovely comments. I don’t think there’s any contradiction between the books being ‘entities and referents in their own right’, and reading them as ebooks. There’s no question that reading things in digital form has both pros and cons, but for me, overall, the pros outweigh the cons, most of the time. of course ebooks will not see the death of the physical book. Rather the opposite: the quality fo physical books will probably improve. Ebooks may very well see the death of the mass-market paperback, and that’s no great tragedy. Sometimes I’m in the mood to read a physical book – often an ebook is absolutely fine.
I will say that the excitement about ‘enhanced ebooks’ leaves me cold. I mean whatever turns a reader on, fine, but I have no interest in embedded animations, soundtracks, any of that stuff.
I will say that the excitement about ‘enhanced ebooks’ leaves me cold. I mean whatever turns a reader on, fine, but I have no interest in embedded animations, soundtracks, any of that stuff.