There has been a lot of digital ink flowing about digital versus traditional books. As a reader, I have spent the last few months enjoying some eBooks using the Kindle app on my iPad but am now diving back into some paper books. Meanwhile as a writer, I am enjoying the process of adding "bonus features" and annotating my own novel, City of the Gods: The Return of Quetzalcoatl to create a richer and more interactive experience for its readers.
Once in a while, I like to revisit some of my favorite books and I recently started rereading Michael Crichton's Jurassic Park. I was tempted to pick it up as an eBook but it turns out it is not available in digital format so I am am now reading an old hardcover. It is a novel that I discovered as a teen and one of which I have very vivid sensory memories associated with the first time that I cracked it open:
CUE FLASHBACK EFFECT
It was a beautiful summer day in 1991. I had gone to visit a high school friend but he wasn't at home (this was in an age before cellphones, in which you often had to "call ahead" or simply drop in to visit someone). It was the summer vacation and I was still a kid with hours to fill but, fortunately, I did have a brand-new paperback of Jurassic Park.
I wandered around for a while, looking for a good reading spot and found myself on the campus of nearby Northeastern Illinois University. I discovered a secluded nook in the shadow of the rambling mid-Twentieth Century monstrosity that is the NEIU Science Building. I sat in a patch of bare earth where the lawn had retreated from the building in an apparent act of sensibility and good taste.
I pulled the novel out and regarded it. I always do this. I call it "Addressing the Book," because sometimes it's okay to judge a book by its cover. This one was a mass-market paperback, probably bought off the rack at my local Osco drugstore. The author's name was prominent on the cover in raised letters, as was the black silhouette of a Tyrannosaur skull, all of which gave slightly when you pushed in on them but then popped back into shape satisfyingly. The bright white background gleamed in the sunlight which filtered in through the trees.
I cracked the book open and flipped through the first few pages of publication information and acknowledgments. I sat there for hours, my fingers caressing the dry pages and my oily teenage fingers sticking to the sleek plasticized cover, now forever curled from my repeated attempts to bend it back in order to get deeper in the book . My right thumb rested on the rough edges of the Pages to be Read, as their numbers slowly diminished. The gentle fwoosh and crackle of the turning pages created a hypnotic rhythm conducive to a long transportive session of reading.
END FLASHBACK
Some people just do not like the idea of reading from an electronic device. There is a sensuality and a romance to traditional books that simply cannot be replicated on an eBook reader. A Kindle or iPad is just not as "cuddly" as a nice hardcover or paperback. We've had thousands of years to get used to the idea of a paper book and we bring them everywhere, even our beds and bathrooms. I concede that the act of reading from a device is less tactile and intimate but eBooks do offer an impressive range of features that make them appealing in their own right.
While they have clear advantages in weight and flexibility, eBooks really outshine traditional books in their interactive and embedded reference features. My novel City of the Gods is a science fiction/fantasy story that is set in and around Mexico City and is heavily based on Mexican history and Mesoamerican mythology. It features all kinds of references with which many readers will not be familiar. The standard paperback version of the book addresses this with a traditional glossary (as does the digital version) but with eBook technology, readers can highlight any unfamiliar word in the text and do either a dictionary, Google, or Wikipedia search.
Say you are reading City of the Gods and you come across a reference to the old Aztec capital of Tenochtitlan. Contextually, you will know what it is from the book but if you want to know more you can highlight the word and do a Google search and see something like this. Or get even more information via Wikipedia. Gone are the days when you get only a vague contextual meaning of a reference or have to write yourself a note to look it up later. With a good eBook reader, you can look it all up from right inside the book in a nearly seamless action.
In our Wiki-fied age, the applications for this technology are only beginning to be employed. This is particularly of note to readers of genre fiction in which often feature sprawling complex worlds. How great would it be to dive into the eBook of the latest Star Wars novel with a built-in ability to reference the wonderful and very complete Wookiepedia reference site where you can see what the hell a Trandoshan looks like, in case you have forgotten.
Back in the 1990's, author Kathrine Ramsland published a pair of comprehensive guides to the popular Vampire and Witch novels of Anne Rice. There were two very big and heavy reference books, one for each of these series. Today, the traditional encyclopedia and its spin-offs are effectively dead and big expensive reference books like these would never be published. After all, this information is all easily obtainable and free online. But imagine if these guides were actually embedded into the novels themselves and constantly updateable. No more having to switch between books or worry about rebuying the latest edition. Other long and complex multi-book series like Stephen King's Dark Tower books or The Lord of the Rings series would also certainly benefit from this kind of reference technology.
Readers and authors are now able to share their own notes and comments in eBooks. I am now in the process of annotating City of the Gods with select background information about the book's development, inspirations, and themes, which will be in the vein of the kinds of "Director's Commentaries" now popular on DVDs and Blurays. It will be meant to reward and enrich a second reading of the book and even encourage a kind of dialogue between author and reader about books and writing.
For this reason alone, I think that the eBook is the superior version of City of the Gods, wherever you decide to read it. And, while it may not offer the same sensual experience as the paperback version, you can always light some candles, pop in your earbuds and play some nice music. It will take you away. I promise.
Patrick Garone
www.patrickgarone.com
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