The odd pleasures of reading Proust on a mobile phone

Originally published at: http://boingboing.net/2016/10/05/the-odd-pleasures-of-reading-p.html

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So true. The smaller the screen the better. I am waiting for an affordable smartwatch to offer a good e-reading experience.

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I like this, not even joking. My phone from two years ago had a little screen that could only support about one sentence at a time. So, I’d read a sentence, swipe, read the next sentence, swipe, so on and so forth. This was a more engaging user experience than reading from a book, where I’d have to remember where I left off every time I looked up from the page.

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I don’t find it odd at all!
I got used to reading in small screens since I had my first Palm Pilot, on which I read all H2G2 books.
It frustrated me its monochrome LC screen did not light (well, it did, but the blue negative was annoying and sucked the 2-AAA batteries).
Later, the iPad and even the Kindle seemed too bulky for me.
I found a perfect reading experience in my 2nd generation iPod Touch, witch I still use, broken screen and all, and prefer to the iPhone, because its screen is less shinier and is perfect for me to read at night, in bed, not bothering my wife.

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I love reading on my phone. I’m not sure that I want to go any smaller than that anymore, if only because the constant swiping/button-pressing to turn pages gets tedious after a while.

Back in the day, I used to read a lot on my iriver h140 mp3 player (RIP):

Among other things, I read Infinite Jest on there, which was actually really great when it came to the footnotes (easy to flip back and forth) and was a lot easier to carry around and read with one hand than the physical version of the book…

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Have you read Sapiens yet? What did you think of it? It’s on my maybe list but seems a little long. It doesn’t seem like it should take 400+ pages to make your point.

It’s good but basic. Anyone who has taken 200 level philosophy classes will bore quickly with how long he spends articulating fairly simple concepts. First 100 pages are brilliant, the rest makes you want to drop kick the editor that signed off on it. It would have made an excellent 150p book properly edited.

Plus, the iPhone Proust has all the original dick pics.

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I read Tristram Shandy on my iPod. I don’t want to do that again.

It was okay for reading a load of Edgar Rice Burroughs on flights, though.

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Well, here in Recife, Brazil, mobile phones are not allowed inside banks. I save this paper book to read whenever I’m in the bank, so i’m reading it veeeeery slowly. I’m only in page 30 or something. It’s interesting, so far.

I love the constant reading and swiping. It keeps me more engaged with the book, and keeps me from reading onward rather than re-reading the last sentence I read over and over again.

That’s strange. What problem is that rule solving?

Informers inside the bank telling thieves outside when people with big amounts of money are leaving the bank. Informing the position of security guards. Taking photos of bank employees for kidnap. All kinds of things.

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My city is not exactly the safest place on the planet.

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Ah, good times! I still can’t believe how many books I managed to read on that 160 x 160 pixel display. I have to laugh at thinking how much better it was when I upgraded to my color 320 x 320 Clie.

I do the bulk of my reading in bed before going to sleep. Night mode, for your same reason, is awesome. I find it more relaxing than reading from paper, even with a soft light.

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