Comments on: Literature in Miniature: Reading on the iPhone

By: Kindle DX: A Lesson in Marketing E-Readers | TakePart Social Action Network™

Thu, 07 May 2009 21:28:27 +0000

[...] the parents to be guilted into paying for the devices (though parents are not likely to jump on the e-reader train themselves), which would open the door for the college kids’ little siblings because [...]

By: i-reading « SONYA CHUNG

i-reading « SONYA CHUNG — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 19:51:30 +0000

[...] here for a nice little overview from Flavorpill / Boldtype of the different ways to read a book on an [...]

By: SONYA CHUNG

SONYA CHUNG — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 19:49:23 +0000

[...] short little overview from Flavorpill / Boldtype of the different ways of reading a book on an ipod. I like the writer’s ultimate conclusion [...]

By: april 22 | links back

april 22 | links back — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 02:47:19 +0000

[...] Literature in Miniature: Reading on the iPhone—Flavorpill [...]

By: Jaime

Jaime — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 15:49:48 +0000

Thanks Diana. Nice piece. As a relatively new iPhone owner, I found it useful. I actually found the comments useful too – which very rarely ever happens. So I thank commentors as well – I will include Stanza on my list of iPhone readers to check out.

I, too, enjoy cracking a book's binding for the first time and I, too, use a bookmark or piece of paper to preserve the book's quality. And I, too, keep a collection of books lying about my apartment in strategically arranged piles – books I'm reading, books I'm going to read next, books I want to get around to someday reading. I usely carry at least 3 books with me at all times – two I am reading, one to write in, and then sometimes there is a 4th – the one I'm listening to in the car.

But still I feel I may be a little overwhelmed with the iPhone readers – too many more books with me.

PS – I loved the Murakami reference. That sucker is a thick one, but it's a great one – one of my favorites of his.

By: 0goldn1

0goldn1 — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 21:11:04 +0000

Another great iphone app is Wattpad. It's free and I find very easy to read and navigate. I almost feel lazy I don't have to turn the pages! LOL happy reading :)

By: Onze11

Onze11 — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 04:37:17 +0000

Diana…

How do we send send you a voucher for a review copy of Stories for Airports? Available on Stanza via Smashwords, these bite-sized fictions are written for layovers and limbos of all kinds and durations.

By: Colin

Colin — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 20:51:17 +0000

What a strange article wherein the author states the conclusion "clumsy and hard on the eyes" before appearing to have undertaken any testing. That may be just a style issue, but it's underlined by the lack of reference to Stanza as referred to by my fellow commenters.

Mainly though, I entirely disagree with the viewpoint, if you're finding it hard to read, enlarge the text, change the font and/or change the colours of the text and background. To date on my first gen iPhone using Stanza I've read or re-read Perdido Street Station/China Mieville, Collected Stories of Raymond Chandler, Nueromancer/William Gibson, I, Robot/Isaac Asimov, Midnight's Children/Salman Rushdie, Seeing/Jose Saramago and I'm dipping in and out of J.G. Ballard's complete short stories.

No sign of discomfort. Sorry, thumbs down on this piece – better research please.

By: urbanant

urbanant — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 18:02:45 +0000

Absolutely agree – I use Stanza to get all the Project Gutenberg titles. It also allows you to add your own ebooks to the Stanza reader using a free desktop app.

By: olen

olen — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 17:36:23 +0000

That's what I was going to say, Stan. (Can I please oh pretty please call you Stanza?) Stanza is the best iPhone reading app I've tried, by far. I haven't tried Kindle app for the iPhone, but the average review in the iTunes store is two and a half stars, which is somewhat telling. The best thing I like about Stanza is being able to customize a lot of things, but most importantly the page viewing screen. I make my page background black, with dark purple text, which I find to be very easy on my eyes, doesn't require a light, and might even save the battery. Reading on a screen is NOT HARD ON THE EYES. Your rods and cones will not burn out. The medium through which we take in literature may transition over time, but the craft and sentiment will never.