falling out of love with paper

I’ve been a reader all my life. From the pulpy comfort of comic books to the addiction/ tyranny of the morning newspaper. Thousands of articles, hundreds of books have gone into my brain through the conventional route of words on the printed page. In the last ten years however, I have been reading more and more on screen. Although I would have always gone along with the notion that words on screen will never fully replace the ease and tactility of the printed page I have only recently woken up to the fact that I am now reading more words on screen than on paper. More importantly, I am only now starting to admit to myself that I think I get as much pleasure out of skimming a newspaper on line as looking through a hard copy. I still wouldn’t read a novel on screen but then again I think I listen to more books (via audible on my ipod) than I read. Most books, if read well, gain by being listened to. I’m listening to “Cloud Atlas” by David Mitchell at the moment. If I was reading it, I’m not sure I would have stayed the course but the different voices make the varying first person narrations very compelling.