Literature Scholar Ruth Klüger Advocates for eBooks, Faces Student Backlash
Forum user GisJu drew my attention yesterday to an interesting article on Zeit-Online. It’s about the literary scholar and writer Ruth Klüger, who spoke to students at the Free University of Berlin about her fondness for and the advantages of eBooks. “I confess to being an enthusiastic convert to electronic reading,” were her words.
However, it seems the audience, consisting mostly of first-semester German studies students, was not quite as impressed. Some attendees expressed critical opinions, and Zeit-Online describes the overall reaction as rather negative.
“I want to be able to lend books, make annotations in them, and see others’ annotations!” said one attendee. Another person critically asked whether we don’t view digital texts as cheap disposable products.
Klüger found little merit in the negativity, stating: “It’s pointless to lament this revolution (…) it’s simply happening.” She further took some of the emotional weight out of the discussion, saying: “If you don’t view it as a technical, ugly thing, then the eBook reader is just a library with books in it”; as well as: “Simply accumulating objects is not yet culture.”
The comment about annotations is almost ironic, given that the annotations you make within eBooks on most eBook readers can be shared directly with friends and acquaintances online, and notes from others are even displayed directly in your own text through various community features. However, book lending remains a DRM-bound issue for which there are currently no viable solutions.
In spite of Klüger’s enthusiasm for digital books, it’s worth noting for completeness that she has recently published a 10-page essay in eBook format (see image) priced at 99 cents. The title, fitting to the lecture, is “Reading Differently – Confessions of a Compulsive eBook Reader.” Naturally, one might wonder whether the university lecture was merely a clever marketing ploy, or whether she genuinely held these convictions without any ulterior motives.
Whatever the exact motivations may be, the author is certainly right about one thing: The revolution is happening. It’s moving more slowly here than in English-speaking markets, but progress is being made. However, I personally don’t believe that eBooks will completely replace classic paper books. What do you think?
