Social Reading

Clive Thompson of Wired sees a future in which reading books is a social experience, reports Nick Bilton in the New York Times (6/28/10). "You’ll be able to cut, paste and exchange your favorite passages using them in the same … way we now use online text and video to argue, think or express how we’re feeling," he says. "E-books will display their social and informational life … On which pages do readers most linger? What are the world’s best comments for this passage?"

It’s a world that could evolve along with tablet computers, which some developers say will be "so flexible that you will literally be able to roll them up and slip them in your bag or pocket — just as you would do with a newspaper or magazine today — and then unfurl them on the train." That evolution actually is being led by the U.S. Army, which is working with Arizona State University’s Flexible Display Center "to build flexible, nonbreakable screens and devices for use on the battlefield."

Nicholas Negroponte, of M.I.T. and One Laptop Per Child fame, is meanwhile readying for market an iPad-like device that’s made of plastic and "will use so little power you should be able to shake it or wind it up to give it power." It is scheduled for a 2012 release at a price less than $100. However, the future of social reading may be as much about such devices as it is the potential to make books available on any platform, anytime, anywhere. Indeed, Clive Thompson envisions a future in which publishers offer "single chapters of some books for 99 cents each, the price for which iTunes sells single songs today."