Yeah, great for the blinds, but I’ve seen non-blind people listening those in movies etc.

I just cannot get how would you enjoy a ‘novel’ when you’re tired or busy driving? It needs even more attention to admire its pleasures than a document written at work.

Speaking of novels it reminds me the famous Woody allen qoute (I hope I can find it in a minute and add here…found it :) )

I took a speed-reading course and read War and Peace in twenty minutes. It involves Russia.
Woody Allen

those books are very convenient to the blinds.

Imagine reading books with their hands while they’re on the move? They would prefer that when they’re resting in a shaky train or bus, they can read at their ease with these kind of “sound” books?

Some people, after a long day of reading all sorts of materials, when they want to sit back and relax and read up their favourite book, but too tired to read anymore, would prefer to “listen” to a book, that make them more relax I think ;-)

Cheers,
Jenson

That’s that case a few years back or perhaps for some groups of people, but nowadays, especialy for more IT savvy people, they want to shun away from that, but they eventually find themselves too involved until there’s no way they can really change their lifestyle, or the “screen-staring” culture.

Talking about reading, yes, it’s right that more and more people are reading “ebooks” off their “screens”, and that’s not always for me, unless it’s properly formatted for smaller screen reading and no emitting extremely bright light into my eyes. I can’t stand staring it and my eyes get very tired easily and I tend to doze off.

I still prefer reading a “normal” book rather than ebook as it gives me flexibility to refer to part I want to find out more easily and I just flip and flip, that’s it, but then it doesnt give me the portability when I’m on the move. I hate carrying bulky items while I’m moving around. Heavy books make me leave them at home unread, untouched.

I prefer those well-formatted ebook or online “books” that can fit nicely into smaller screen and not requires one to do frequent scrollings.

I recently watched this video talking about a study in Japan, stated that more and more people are moving into reading online books, novels, etc and it’s more convenient and well-formatted, especially for those busy working adults who spend their every single free time to read. So that comes to my mind when I read your article.

I would say that people are not reading less, but reading less in conventional way, and reading more on various type of devices which they bring along with them daily.

I would say more people prefer to walk around with a single multipurpose gadget rather than two, moreover a book too? Unless you’re carrying a backpack with you, else you would soon find out that bringing so many items together is troublesome and tiring, when what you want to do is just to relax.

Just my two cents ;-)

I’ve always found it amusing that there are recordings of whole novels to listen in the U.S. I wonder whether it is still popular in there, or has it ever been in the past?

Radio and TV started off with 1,2 channels. It grew, becoming more specialized, etc.

The same thing is happening now, just at a greater rate.

Soon we’ll have a new network system in place – one wherein 1 in 3 people wouldn’t have heard about the channels the others are watching/viewing/reading on tv/radio/web.

Read books.