Re: The Digital Future Still Is A Mystery If You Don't Publish 'Immersive Reading'

On 1/6/2012 2:09 PM, joseph harris wrote:

> On 'immersive' I rather thought he was trying to make a division that
> was directed to his intended point (which may have got lost), rather
> than descriptive of reader experience. Immersive to me means  - for
> reading - having one's imagination captured by content. If so the use of
> pictures is irrelevant. If, as you suggest (and I think you are right),
> he meant 'all text', then that seems much easier to use - and more
> related to his actual article.

I believe that immersive reading, in this context, is exactly as it's 
name implies: when you are immersed in the text as opposed to just 
skimming over the top.

Immersive reading tends to be linear; you start at the beginning and 
continue on to the end. Dry, boring non-fiction lends itself to 
immersive reading just as much as high adventure. _Gone with the Wind_ 
is immersive, as is _Dreams from My Father_, as is _Banana: The Fate of 
the Fruit That Changed the Word_.

_Apache2: The Complete Reference_ is not designed for immersive reading, 
nor is _The Chemical Rubber Company Handbook of Chemistry and Physics_, 
nor is just about everything you peruse while surfing the web.

A very few people may approach the Bible or the Koran as immersive 
reading, but for most it is not.

Given the relatively long form and start-to-finish nature of immersive 
reading, this kind of work is well-suited to an electronic, hand-held 
format.

Browsing through an electronic document sucks, and very few e-books have 
any kind of a meaningful index, which means that reference works don't 
do well as e-books.



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