For my experiment, I downloaded two books: The Shallows by Nicholas Carr and A Gardener's Approach to Learning by David Warlick. The first was a regular eBook. It was available in a variety of formats, including for the Kindle from Amazon and the Nook from Barnes and Noble. I chose to download it in eBooks format for the iPad. The second was a self-published book (although David Warlick has regularly published books, he chose to self-publish this one) that was only available in PDF format from Lulu.
Coincidentally, or not so coincidentally based on my interests, The Shallows is about how technology is changing the way we think (and not for the better). Carr wrote a recent article titled "Is Google Making Us Stupid." In that article, he outlined why he thinks the Internet makes us stupid. But that article was, in itself, very shallow albeit an interesting thought piece. This book is much more substantial and backed up by a significant amount of research and discussion of brain theory. He is also careful to discuss advantages of the changes in the way we think (and the Internet in general), but overall, he is very troubled by the way our habits of mind are changed in deep and significant ways.
I never actually got to the second book, but I skimmed through it a little to get a sense of how it feels to read a PDF book on the iPad. There are probably better apps for reading PDF documents because using iBook for a PDF document is horrible. I mean it is horrible in comparison to reading a real eBook in iBook. All the features of iBook that I like are missing when reading a PDF document (such as highlighting and note taking). For a short article, it is fine, and it might be fine for a leisurely read, but for a serious academic book, it is not very good.
More to come...
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