Digital Awe (Reading)

As of right now, my project is focused around this idea of becoming a reading
It is kind of interesting because I feel like the digital age has brought reading to such a new level making it easier to get into reading yet people are reading less
I think that there are some things that have really done great things for reading and reviving reading though
but also some that have probably hurt it.

Bear with me. I really struggled putting this list together
(now I actually really want to curate a list on curation but this is too far in the works)
My husband and I had a discussion about how anything digital can be awe anymore
It is so ingrained and that is also coming from people who live and breathe the digital
(although I am pretty sure he posted on Facebook a while back about how
it was amazing to think "20 terabytes? I don't have enough storage.")
but some of these things may not seem that new --or to me they didnt. just kinda old news
but I think they hold an important role in the amazing tools for reading in the digital age


Social:
This is probably obvious but:
Good Reads

its like why dont we make a Facebook for books

Completely revolutionizes the way people can interact with reading books
No longer are people just reading books and perhaps mentioning it to a friend

you can share all the books that you are reading
interact with other friends
interact with people across the world

but I think the most impacting feature is the reviews and suggestions
now books are getting more publicity
there is more to convince readers to read a book
and they are given a direction on what to do next

Amazon Recommendations is right there with this one

This also leads to the interaction with authors

Many author have their own
blogs
Facebooks
Twitters
I think John Green exemplifies this

This gives readers the chance to actually connect with authors

You have great interactions like AMA's

These are things that would rarely happen without the digital world
and now they are connecting readers and authors everywhere
extending the bonds with books to authors

now I don't know a lot about this one
and maybe it is a stretch
but I think it does have a role here and play a part
Publishers

even publishing and the advertising around book is benefiting readership in the digital world

Publishers can interact with readers
drawing more interest
bring more hype

i think an interesting things is providing
advanced copies or sneak peaks
just that little thing to get readers hooked

and beyond these means of interacting
to gain readers and deepen readership

there is the aspect of readers actually obtaining books

first of all...
everything is at our finger tips
we can looks at how news is a click away
when you used to have to buy a newspaper

beyond that lets looks at novels

My favorite:
Overdrive

I always said that they needed a way to check out audiobooks and ebooks

when I first get introduced
it wasnt accessible enough
and they cost more money than I was willing to spend

now Overdrive revolutionizes the way that people use libraries
readers have no reason to not be able to read

now they can afford these new formats

this is hugely important to me
because I need audiobooks

I am too busy to sit down and read a book most of the time

but I can mutlitask

and that means that I can listen to an audiobook
and do the 200000 other things I need to do

on that same line is Librivox
(every once and a while someone in one of my classes will be like
omg guys i found this things that has free audio books.... yeah old news sorry)

Librivox is a project to create audiobooks for the books in the public domain
this takes care of the issues of availability and time frames

and the same things except ebooks
Project Gutenberg
(and there are billions of these things with all the online journals and foundations and etc)

and that is just borrowing

how about buying.

Obviously Amazon is the forerunner in this.
Yes they started as an online bookstore or whatever
they offer Prime shipping (which is awesome)

but what I want to focus on is the used book buying
with Amazon's used buying options

not readers can get their hand on second hand books

this gives second lives to books
and help books go beyond sitting on shelves or being tossed to the thrift store

and if you dont want the actual book
how about eReaders and eBooks (which ya know is pretty much any devices)
now you can have millions of books all in your hand

the readiness and availability of books is unreal
and overcoming the physical issues that used to exist
there is no reason why everyone shouldnt be reading

we can even get into Torrents
and how you can find all the books and audiobooks to your hearts desires
yeah yeah legal issues (and I will be the first to say I am pro torrenting)

but why shouldn't reading be free?
(yeah people have to make money
but I am going to be a teacher
which I think is one of the most important professions
yet the salary is pitiful
so dont talk money
and all that other stuff
whatever)

and we can look at the downside

like how no body wants to read
despite how prolific the resources are
reading is easier than ever

but perhaps too easy now

yeah how about our boy Sparknotes

why should we read when we can just read the summary?

and I have done it too
more than once

it is pretty sad when you start wondering how many college degree are owed to things like Sparknotes

we just have too many things to do
too many other things to hold our attention

I always go back to something I interpreted
Dr. B said it actually
about not always having to read the whole text to still feel it
(I probably live by this a little bit too much)

hopefully people can still feel bits of benefits that come from reading literature

and to help all of this sadness of people not reading

there are still a lot of people promoting literacy

World Book Night is something I think is awesome
I am really excited to take part this year
and I think it is hugely thanks to the digital
I mean how else would you accomplish this task

for something like reading that really is so primitive
(i mean think about it)
there is still an interesting mix of being digital
yet still retaining the primal ways

it only took media so long to be completely taken over my the digital
how much longer can we see for reading