Xref: utzoo comp.sys.next:466 rec.arts.books:4340
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From: cramer@optilink.UUCP (Clayton Cramer)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next,rec.arts.books
Subject: Re: Hundreds of books on an optical disk (long!)
Message-ID: <621@optilink.UUCP>
Date: 2 Nov 88 00:02:16 GMT
References: <0XMtqn087E-0A14EYk@andrew.cmu.edu> <344@uceng.UC.EDU> <5800@hoptoad.uucp>
Organization: Optilink Corporation, Petaluma, CA
Lines: 24

In article <5800@hoptoad.uucp>, tim@hoptoad.uucp (Tim Maroney) writes:
> In article <282@bilver.UUCP> bill@bilver.UUCP (Bill Vermillion) writes:
> Wrong.  The idea is to be able to read Shakespeare, to copy and paste
> relevant sections for critical essays, to print sections for reading at
> leisure when away from the computer, to do word-frequency analyses, to
> follow cross-reference chains among related keywords and topics, and so
> on.  Computers are a terrible medium for leisure reading -- less text
> shows on a screen than on a printed page, and the screen luminescence
> leads to eye fatigue, not to mention the lack of physical portability.
> If all you can do is read, what you have is far worse than a printed book.

Issac Asimov wrote a marvelous parody of _The_Double_Helix_ about these
wild, womanizing scientists at Oxford, a century or two from now, 
reinventing the book for exactly these reasons.

If you doubt it, consider how many people curl up with a good machine-
readable book and a computer at the end of long, busy day.  Also, the
number of people who bring along a laptop to sit in an open field and
read for the pleasure of it.

Anyone that wants to spend more time reading in front of a computer,
instead of a printed page, isn't working hard enough!
-- 
Clayton E. Cramer
..!ames!pyramid!kontron!optilin!cramer