As an avid reader, I must take exception. I love books. I love reading. How many have I read? I have no idea, I never kept count except one summer home from college where I simply piled up the books I finished rather then reshelving them. There were about 50 in the pile after 2 1/2 months, and I was working 40 hours a week during that time as well. So I've read - a lot. Maybe not 17,000, but you ave a few years head start on me < g>. At any rate, since aquiring a Palm handheld, and now a really fancy one, a Kyocera 6035 SmartPhone, I have been doing a LOT of electronic reading. It's extremely convenient, either device is far smaller than a paperback, plus with built-in illumination there's no need to keep a light on and my wife awake. On my PC monitor - no way, even with a high refresh rate my eyes can only take so much. I still print out my monthly FoxTalk downloads to read. But on a nice easy on the eyes flicker free LCD - amazing. I am ALWAYS reading SOMETHING, much to the dismay of my wife. The problem is only worse with the 6035, since it is a cell phone and Palm in one, it is always with me, thus I can read at very odd times, like when stuck in line somewhere - even for 5 minutes, I can get a few paragraphs in. The bad part is when I'm in the middle of a novel on the '35, and one of my favorite magazines comes in the mail - major dilemma!
I suspect a generational thing. Not a bad thing, just a difference in early exposure. Although I can remember when you couldn't just go out and buy a pocket calculator, let alone a computer. But reading electronically 'limited'? No way - at least not in a properly prepared document. I am reading a series of novels now I downloaded from Baen Books (science fiction, of course), and using the MobiPocket reader on my Palm devices I can highlight any word in the text and generate an index of where it appears, and jump to those points in the text. Pretty powerful. And these books aren't even hyperlinked like a good reference work should be. Paging to the back of a book, looking for what you HOPE is the keyword in the index, and then flipping back to the page that SHOULD contain the information will be a thing of the past - and not a negative thing, either.

>Bruce;
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>Hope you are having a good day in this "almost perfect world".
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>This is the wave of the future! Soon there will be no books. Now being a speed-reader I find it a pain to read a small screen full of information that glares at me unlike a book. This same screen produces radiation and comes with warnings about ones health. I was taught that "Books are Friends"! What the hell is a CRT? :)
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>Old habits die hard or not at all. I have read over 17,000 books in my lifetime – yes I keep track! I cannot imagine using a computer to read anything serious but that is the “vision” we are getting from many sources. Reading anything from a computer screen is like being in the first grade in grammar school. This is my dog Spot. See Spot run. Run Spot run. It is limited!
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>Can you imagine doing research (as I have done for many years) without having available several books opened at the same time and book marked? By the way I NEVER mark a book with a pen or other such object but do use a bookmark. Some people use a yellow marking pen. I have seen some people mark everything they read. I guess that allows them to know “where they have been”!
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>Now how do those old timers who mark books react to reading a CRT? I have it! Just follow what we learned from Winky Dink! Markup your CRT baby! In case you are too young to know about Winky Dink or did not have a TV back in the stone age like we did, use google.com to learn a little – maybe.
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>So a business decision was made with the latest version of the Hackers Guide. Now we all have to jump up and down and agree what a great decision it was. Just think like the Lemmings and head for the cliff! Do not express yourself as this might upset the gods and demi-gods – self professed or otherwise.
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>Tom