Was asked to script an article on "Usage of Technology in Literature" for the book readers community!
I was presented with a choice of writing on either Google Book Initiative or Technology in Literature....
The former was more lucrative and a never heard of (at least for me); Thought lets Google it, but later felt it’s THEIR initiative, they definitely would brag about it! So I binged it. On reading more, I felt it would be more of a Ctrl-C + Ctrl-V [which we as is do at work Against Integrity Policy!! ;) ]
So I chose the latter... binged further and discovered that, for some, Literature is too big a word to encompass the works of Jeffery Archer! While the dictionary suggested it’s "the profession of a writer or author"
Talking about technology in literature everyone would definitely like to accolade Adobe for the PDF
Today almost all books are available to us in that format. Not only saving on the shelf space but also portable (wouldn’t have to worry about carrying a 1000 page book on travel) with the help of my PDF reader or PDA. Not just that but also the plug-ins which convert Text To Speech (TTS). Now you’d have the tool reading the content for you too while you read. :)
Audio Books are yet another way of having books in your pocket (thanks to iPod and all mobile phones). Be it the Barron’s (for GRE prep) or novels. Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince strikes the silver screen and one of my acquaintances goes frantically searching for the audio books for the first five novels (so that he’d be able to accompany his girl for the movie!) stating “Thanks to Bengaluru traffic, I can listen to them while commuting” (not that you can’t read and drive with the prevailing conditions!)
How can we leave the search engines like Google [@Microsoft lovers: Bing too!! :) ] and the internet behind? They make research papers from all streams (which are also considered as literature) available in a jiffy!
Hey… wait a second that was literature (novel, poem, prose and essays) a decade ago!
Today’s world adds some more to the list (or at least I’d like to believe so...) Podcast, Wikipedia, Blogs, Twitter etc., the authors need not be an individual but instead a group people. Technology has enabled collaborative contribution.
To ensure you don’t get lost in this world of letters and sail smooth we have Technoratti and Digg to help you with what you want.
Technology is unbiased. It can help a guy avoid skimming pages by a couple of clicks, it definitely would aid the differently-abled. For instance, Touch Screens for interactive learning, Braille books etc.
With technology enabling this much, don’t be surprised when you hear your gal say “Huny! I’ve frgttn d art of lttr wrtng!”
However, technology still cannot find a replacement for - A Saturday noon, bean bag, the fragrance of freshly brewed coffee and the book :) or who knows it may?!?!?
Happy Reading Fishes!
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