E-Media: Alteration of the "Reading Sensation"

As I was madly rummaging through the small, yet quite extensive library in my house in search of a lost Calculus textbook, I stumbled upon a collection of children’s literature books. Most of these I recognized immediately, as they were the books that my sister and I read when we were young. These were the classics, like “The Little Engine That Could”, the collection of “Bernstein Bears” books, and a collection of Roald Dahl books including “The Twits” and “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory”. For children at that time, before the Internet became a worldwide trend, such books were what taught us the foundations of reading and writing, along with teaching us valuable life lessons. It is astounding to see that kids these days are learning to read and write using a computer. Just as a little experiment, I searched for “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” by Roald Dahl on the Chapters website. It did not surprise me to find out that not only do they have the hardcover book version, but they also have audio CD’s, computer games, movies, and CD-ROM texts of the story. This is not necessarily a bad thing, because it allows for multiple ways to enjoy the masterpiece. However, it is sad to observe that the use of the good-old-fashioned book has declined dramatically since the dawn of electronic media. Countless times have I heard people say “Oh I’ll just go and see the movie, then I’ll understand the book”. In this sense, the use of the book is dying. However, the value of the book is still worth its weight in gold. Reading a book has, and always will have a certain sensation that cannot be emulated by a computer or television screen.

All of this has recently come to my attention, after a long hiatus from reading. I had forgotten how different it felt to sit down and read a good book, compared to how it feels to sit in front of a computer screen and browse the World Wide Web. A good example of this “reading sensation” is the physical action of turning pages (As opposed to clicking on a scroll bar). This subtle action, along with others such as holding the actual literature in your hands, and taking time out of the daily routine to sit and read it, contributes to the overall reading experience. When I first started reading Vancouver Short Stories, the sensation immediately came back to me. It is much more interesting and enjoyable to read literature about the history of our great city than to read dry and boring fact books. This is the genius behind the book, especially fictional books, to learn something and to enjoy what you’re reading at the same time.