Day 19 already. Nearly three weeks. Very exciting. However, for the first time since the beginning of NaBloPoMo, I found myself at a bit of a loss on what to write about, so I sought inspiration on the NaBloPoMo website in the list of prompts. I had to go back to July or August but it was the first one that captured my imagination.
Paper books or eBooks?
There is no doubt that the Sony Reader, the Kindle, the iPad and the various other tablet and e-reader devices are clever pieces of kit - I have written every one of this months blog posts on my iPad and use it for all my notes, outlines and writing. But there's something about a book.
In the same way that physically writing is different from typing, reading on a screen is a different experience to reading an actual book. There's something about holding a book, feeling it's weight and size, the smell of the pages and that sound as you turn a page; it's all part of the experience of reading. A book is warm and friendly and there's nothing quite like a dog-eared copy that has been read over and over, where you can see in every crease and worn edge, how much the reader has appreciated it. An e-reader is cold, mechanical and emotionless and can never tell it's own story the way a physical book can. A book is a doorway to another world, an e-reader is a tool to be used.
You might think this is odd coming from someone who is a self-confessed iFan, but writing is a different process for me than reading and therefore the way that I choose to engage with that process is different. Reading is all about enjoyment for me. When I read I like to become absorbed. I don't analyse, I don't examine and I don't question, I simply let the prose lead me and I obediently follow. When I'm writing, it's work. It's work I enjoy, but it's work. My mind is busy, looking for opportunities to explore, sewing seeds and weaving threads together. When I write, I'm in the driver's seat. It's a more analytical process and a more active one. As a writer, there are occasions when I want to be free of my digital chains, and that's when I put pen to paper in a leather journal I keep for the purpose. In it you will find ideas, random thoughts, snippets of songs, poetry and prose that catch my attention, and general ramblings.
For me, both reading and writing are quite romantic and artsy, but where reading is an entirely romantic experience, writing has a second facet which I think of as 'productive writing'. There's a place for e-readers; it's easier to take a loaded iPad on a two week holiday rather than a stack of 7 novels, and I acknowledge that some people will not romanticise reading as I do, but there will always be books in my house, and I will always prefer to read a printed novel over a digital copy.
Paper books or eBooks?
There is no doubt that the Sony Reader, the Kindle, the iPad and the various other tablet and e-reader devices are clever pieces of kit - I have written every one of this months blog posts on my iPad and use it for all my notes, outlines and writing. But there's something about a book.
In the same way that physically writing is different from typing, reading on a screen is a different experience to reading an actual book. There's something about holding a book, feeling it's weight and size, the smell of the pages and that sound as you turn a page; it's all part of the experience of reading. A book is warm and friendly and there's nothing quite like a dog-eared copy that has been read over and over, where you can see in every crease and worn edge, how much the reader has appreciated it. An e-reader is cold, mechanical and emotionless and can never tell it's own story the way a physical book can. A book is a doorway to another world, an e-reader is a tool to be used.
You might think this is odd coming from someone who is a self-confessed iFan, but writing is a different process for me than reading and therefore the way that I choose to engage with that process is different. Reading is all about enjoyment for me. When I read I like to become absorbed. I don't analyse, I don't examine and I don't question, I simply let the prose lead me and I obediently follow. When I'm writing, it's work. It's work I enjoy, but it's work. My mind is busy, looking for opportunities to explore, sewing seeds and weaving threads together. When I write, I'm in the driver's seat. It's a more analytical process and a more active one. As a writer, there are occasions when I want to be free of my digital chains, and that's when I put pen to paper in a leather journal I keep for the purpose. In it you will find ideas, random thoughts, snippets of songs, poetry and prose that catch my attention, and general ramblings.
For me, both reading and writing are quite romantic and artsy, but where reading is an entirely romantic experience, writing has a second facet which I think of as 'productive writing'. There's a place for e-readers; it's easier to take a loaded iPad on a two week holiday rather than a stack of 7 novels, and I acknowledge that some people will not romanticise reading as I do, but there will always be books in my house, and I will always prefer to read a printed novel over a digital copy.
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