Sensory Fiction - Experiments in the future of publishing

You're reading an exciting scene, you're nervous for the main character, and your chest feels tight... Wait a minute, your chest actually IS tight.

With Sensory Fiction, a new technology conceptualized and prototyped by students at MIT's Media Lab, the vest you're wearing would actually tighten around your chest - so you can feel what the character feels.

An image of a reader experiencing Sensory Fiction

Or... your character enters a volcanic tube, and the heat is intense. You start to sweat. Yup, it's the vest again, heating up and helping you experience what the character experiences.

Good idea, or bad? What do you think?

Check out the details of this possible future for publishing -- and reading -- here.

Illustrate and Write On,

Lee

Bookless Libraries

"Texas has seen the future of the public library, and it looks a lot like an Apple Store."

Paul J. Weber, The Associated Press, reported earlier this year in USA Today about Bexar County' BiblioTech, "the Nation's only bookless public library."

It's a fascinating read, including this:

San Antonio is the nation's seventh-largest city but ranks 60th in literacy, according to census figures. Back in the early 2000s, community leaders in Bibliotech's neighborhood of low-income apartments and thrift stores railed about not even having a nearby bookstore, said Laura Cole, BiblioTech's project coordinator. A decade later, Cole said, most families in the area still don't have Wi-Fi.

"How do you advance literacy with so few resources available?" she said.

Residents are taking advantage now. The library is on pace to surpass 100,000 visitors in its first year. Finding an open iMac among the four dozen at BiblioTech is often difficult after the nearby high school lets out, and about half of the facility's e-readers are checked out at any given time, each loaded with up to five books. One of BiblioTech's regulars is a man teaching himself Mandarin.

One interesting angle is that "The space is also more economical than traditional libraries despite the technology: BiblioTech purchases its 10,000-title digital collection for the same price as physical copies, but the county saved millions on architecture because the building's design didn't need to accommodate printed books." -- Namely, books are heavy, and buildings designed to hold thousands of them need to be able to bear that weight.

Other public library efforts to go bookless haven't succeeded in the past. Will this one?

And is this all-or-nothing approach to going digital a glimpse of the future, or a experiment that's gone too far?

What do you think?

Illustrate and Write On,
Lee

Speed Reading Apps... Are they the future of reading?

Okay, when I heard about speed reading apps such as Velocity and Spritz, I thought it was crazy, but play along, okay?

Go here and copy the text of this article, "Don't Mock Speed Reading Apps. They are Life-Changing" by Jim Pagels.

Then go here to Spreeder and paste the text in the window.

The Spreeder window.

It will take you just 3 minutes and five seconds to read the whole article as it's fed to you FAST.

Pros to consider:

You do read faster than normal (certainly I did) and evidently can train yourself, as Jim explains in his Slate article, to read faster and faster.

It eliminates multi-tasking while reading something because the program demands your full attention.Your mind and eyes cannot wander or you lose the thread of what you're reading entirely. (I liked the metaphor that it's like a treadmill for your eyes, and you can't just stop while running on a treadmill or you'll fall off.)


Cons to consider:

Formatting is eliminated.

Savoring and digesting what you're reading is secondary to speed.


But that was a nonfiction article.  How about fiction?

Here's the text from the first page of E.B. White's masterwork, "Charlotte's Web." What's it like to read it via Spreeder?

Copy this:

***

1. Before Breakfast
WHERE'S Papa going with that ax" said Fern to her mother as they were setting the table for breakfast.
"Out to the hoghouse," replied Mrs. Arable. "Some pigs were born last night."
"I don't see why he needs an ax," continued Fern, who was only eight.
"Well," said her mother, "one of the pigs is a runt. It's very small and weak, and it will never amount to anything. So your father has decided to do away with it."
"Do away with it? shrieked Fern. "You mean kill it? Just because it's smaller than the others?"
Mrs. Arable put a pitcher of cream on the table. "Don't yell, Fern!" she said. "Your father is right. The pig would probably die anyway."
Fern pushed a chair out of the way and ran outdoors. The grass was wet and the earth smelled of springtime. Fern's sneakers were sopping by the time she caught up with her father.

***

And paste it in the Spreeder Window.

Hit play, and see what you think.

Useful?
Disturbing?
Maybe a tool for writers to make sure every word really counts?

Share what you think in comments.

Illustrate and Write On,
Lee

ps - My thanks to the "Need for Speed" Cassandra post for the links mentioned above.