Clive Thompson on the Future of Reading
June 3, 2009 – 12:10 pm by Thomas GideonWired has a short editorial from Clive Thompson. It is another thoughtful consideration on the future of the printed book. What I like most about this is how he points out several existing examples that he believes point the way.
But only if publishers adopt Wark’s perspective and provide new ways for people to encounter the written word. We need to stop thinking about the future of publishing and think instead about the future of reading.
The example set by Wark is one of opening a work up for annotation, commentary and discussion. I am a big fan of an idea, the unbook, that considers this to be a valuable emerging model not just for after a book has been published but through its formative process and especially for books that in more traditional models would have gone through several editions.
While Thompson focuses in on the dialogue and discussion, I do like that the question he really is posing is the future of reading. I agree that this is far and away the more useful question when contemplating what is going to thrive as digital technologies disrupt the status quo in publishing.
