Musings of a Marketing Maven — Christine Thompson> What's on my mind: life and work

Cultivating Silence, For Better Writing

January 17th, 2012 · Back to Basics, Creativity, Tools & Technology

“Silence is golden.” Or so we’ve heard for centuries; a proverbial saying that’s consistent across cultures.

The question is, in an amped-up, caffeine-fueled, texting/tweeting world of constant distractions, is there a place for silence in business? That is, can a more beautifully silent space lead to better writing?

Or is this a question whose answer varies by age, with time for silence or contemplation a concept that appeals more powerfully to people over 40?

Do people write better, think more clearly, if they have the luxury of doing so in an environment that screens out noise and distractions? Does focus lead to better writing, content that’s more likely to resonate with others? Can a blank canvas invoke more creativity?

It’s an interesting question, one that I think is best answered on an individual basis. It’s also possible that individual preferences are more situational, linked to time and place, or what you’re thinking or writing about. Or: who’s paying for your time and why…

A writer’s haven

If you’d like to experience the impact of distraction-free silence while writing, there’s a minimalist tool for Mac, PC and iPad users called “OmmWriter Dana.” It’s kind of a zen-like, Steve Jobs-inspired approach to the act of writing. Its Barcelona-based creators call it “a writer’s haven.”

OmmWriter Dana

The minimalist version can be downloaded for free to your Mac; a paid-version offers a broader selection of color schemes and audio themes designed to cultivate focus, contemplation and enhance creativity.

I’m using the basic version of OmmWriter to draft this blog post. OmmWriter enables me write the basic post, hiding the rest of my Macintosh environment (including turning off my secondary display where I normally scan incoming emails, tweets, etc.)

To turn this draft into a blog, I copy my draft, and then paste it into WordPress where I’ll add the appropriate HTML tags, category tags and so on. This separates the writing process from the markup process.

Whether this two-step approach enhances creativity is too soon to say definitively. What I do know is that the actual experience of writing with OmmWriter is more delightful than when writing a blog inside WordPress, LiveWriter, NotePad or any of the usual word processing tools.

Try it yourself, and see how it helps your writing.

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→ 4 CommentsTags: contemplative writing·content creation·OmmWriter

Thanks for Yoga Teachers Everywhere

December 22nd, 2011 · Yoga

Writing Christmas or Chanukah cards offers a time to reflect, count your blessings, and reconnect with friends and family.

A mindful yoga practice can also help to shed light on the people, situations and opportunities that have made a real difference over the past year.

On the longest day of the year, heart-warming activities like these dispel the darkness, and counteract the chill of winter.

While reflecting on the highlights of 2011, I’m grateful for the wonderful yoga teachers who serve in Seattle and nearby yoga studios.

Yesterday was an example of one teacher’s generosity, and her commitment to yoga’s teachings…

Her husband was in the hospital recovering from surgery, so she had cancelled the morning class to spend the day with him. But she had no way to notify the students who had preregistered for her class online…

She showed up at the studio to do a few sun salutations before rejoining her husband at the hospital — only to discover two students waiting outside the studio for class to begin. (I had driven half an hour in rush hour traffic to get to class on time…)

Sharing the Blessings of Yoga

So she invited us to join her in a set of sun salutations, a practice she needed to ground herself before heading to the hospital. For us it was not a class, but a yoga-centered opportunity to open our hearts, breathe deeply, and express the joy of being alive, surrounded by people we cherish.

It was a beautiful practice, a wonderful gift from a yogini very pressed for time, but willing to share her yoga practice with the two of us. A true yoga experience…

Her generosity yesterday was a reminder of the enduring gifts that yoga teachers are eager to share, with those who are ready and willing to receive them.

Namaste.

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Kindle Touch: Much Improved Readability

November 29th, 2011 · Tools & Technology

When I shared my first impressions of a new Kindle Touch, my review was positive but not glowing. Now that I’ve used it quite a bit over the past week, my opinion about its readability has improved. Thanks to evolutionary advances in its display technology, this Kindle is much better for reading than last year’s Kindle DX model, which gave me eye strain.

On the Kindle Touch characters are black and crisp, contrast is better. There’s also an option that gives you some control over line spacing and character spacing. If you care about the “rivers of white space,” this allows you to minimize that effect — which makes for better readability.

It does not render subtle typographic effects very well; grey-scale graphics are also somewhat compromised. That said, it’s very useful for displaying text-dense novels and similar reading material.

Thanks to its improved display, I can comfortably read the Kindle for at least an hour without eye strain. (I had to return a Kindle DX last year because it gave me eye strain headaches after 20 minutes of use.)

It’s delightful to know that I can safely tuck the Kindle Touch into a purse or knapsack, for use while on-the-go, or when waiting for someone to show up for a meeting.

I do hope that publishers will soon take advantage of the new EPUB® 3 standards, for more variation in the typography and page layout of e-books. Otherwise there’s a boredom factor that you have to overlook when reading books on a Kindle.

In the meantime for straightforward books, the Kindle Touch is the best e-book reader for immersive reading, when you’re willing to dive into a book for an hour or more.

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Back to the Mat: Where’s the Stick?

November 23rd, 2011 · Yoga

I’m one of those unlucky yoginis who struggles with sweaty hands and feet during yoga classes. As class progresses, my stable foundation becomes unstable, especially for strong poses held for a minute or longer — things like a low lunge, downward facing dog, or a warrior pose. I need a yoga mat with better stick.

As my practice improves, I’m getting better at bringing energy up from my hands and feet to my core — but I tire more quickly. Legs start to shake, my poses lose their integrity.

Using the right mat can help, but I haven’t yet found the perfect solution. These days I’m experimenting with two different combinations, for different class styles.

For more in-depth discussions of yoga mats, based on personal trials, see: the quest for the perfect yoga mat, the quest (take 2), and still waiting for the perfect yoga mat.

The Yoga Mats Teachers Recommend

Observant teachers who see me slipping will recommend switching to a different yoga mat. Although teachers have different preferences, they tend to recommend either Jade or Manduka brand yoga mats.

As a result, I now own and use two different mats for class. Before heading off for class, I’ll choose the one best suited to today’s teacher — her yoga discipline and what she tends to emphasize in the way of asanas:

Jade Harmony Professional Mat — for use in moderately sweaty classes (vinyasa flow, when poses will be held only briefly)
Manduka Black Mat Pro — for use in Anusara classes that focus on core building and strong poses held for long periods (where stability counts)

Neither mat fully solves the problem, but for different reasons.

The Jade Harmony mat has a longer “mean time before slippage”; however, it deforms as it warms. So the Jade mat tends to be less suited for Anusara-style asanas with its focus on solid foundations and opposing actions. The Manduka never deforms, is always rock solid, but my hands and feet slip much earlier in class unless I’ve taken precautions.

Mat Covers Can Help

Because neither mat is sticky enough on its own, I’ve tested different mat covers, with varying degrees of success. Here’s my current “class formula”:

Vinyasa flow: Jade Harmony mat plus Manduka eQua hand towel
Anusara: Manduka Black Mat Pro plus Yogitoes Premium Skidless Mat-size Yoga Towel

For Vinyasa Flow

During classes with lots of sun salutations or other flowing sequences, I’ve found that Manduka’s micro-fiber hand towel does a good job keeping hands or feet stable. I’ve used a single towel, but am about to try placing two towels on the mat, one for hands and one for feet.

Manduka’s longer mat cover is less effective during vinyasa flow sequences — it wrinkles too easily. (This may not be an issue for skilled yoginis who jump and float easily from one pose to another, without graceless foot dragging.)

When possible, I prefer to bring the Jade Harmony mat to class because it weighs a pound or two less than the Manduka mat, rolls up nicely, and is easy to secure with a velcro strap. (That said, it took a couple of months before the rubber smell dissipated enough for me to ignore the Jade mat during class.)

For Anusara

My preferred solution for Anusara classes is the Manduka Black Mat Pro with Yogitoes skidless mat towel, which almost fully covers my yoga mat.

Even after two years of use and multiple washings, the Yogitoes towel remains reasonably absorbent, and the rubber feet keep it firmly in place — most of the time. It can wrinkle during fast-paced sun or moon salutations, so it sometimes needs adjusting during class.

What I don’t like is the somewhat bumpy feel of the rubber protrusions on the reverse side of the Yogitoes mat towel. This sort of spoils the zen-like beauty of the Manduka mat.

The wrinkly mat towel is the reason my vinyasa teacher tells me to bring the Jade Harmony mat to her classes.

I keep hoping that someday I’ll find a yoga mat that doesn’t compromise on stability while retaining its stickiness for the duration of the class. Perhaps this is just a fantasy…

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→ 3 CommentsTags: Anusara·vinyasa·yoga mat comparison·yoga mat towels

Kindle Touch: First Impressions Positive, Not Glowing

November 21st, 2011 · Tools & Technology

If the iPad is a BMW, Amazon’s new Kindle Touch is a Chevy or a bare-bones Ford. It will take you where you want to go, but don’t expect frills along the way…

I chose the $99 entry-level touch screen model, with WiFi but no 3G. It displays advertising constantly, except when you’re actively reading or interacting with the device. Fortunately, the ads don’t intrude when you’re reading.

The device seems a bit slow, especially when responding to touch for menu selection, page turns, etc. Perhaps the hardware is a wee bit underpowered?

WiFi is a bit feeble, even when sitting in an office just a few strides away from the WiFi router with a strong signal.

Text display is crisp, but can be uneven. (My opinion about the Touch’s readability has improved somewhat after a week of usage.)

The ads themselves are not intrusive; however, navigating away from a full-page ad to whatever you want to read is a bit clunky.

One of the most pleasurable aspects of the Kindle Touch is how it feels in your hand: lightweight, nicely balanced, with a suede-like finish on the back. Friendly and approachable in its feel.

No Romance

Out-of-the-Box Experience

Compared to the experience of unveiling a new Apple product, there’s no magic (except for my cat, who adores all Amazon boxes, no matter what their contents).

Kindle’s packaging is plain and monochromatic: no-nonsense cardboard encases the device, a plastic film protects the screen.

Inside there’s no friendly marketing collateral to welcome the new Kindle owner. Amazon’s Thank You Letter will download when you sync your Kindle. (Four hours later my welcome letter has not yet downloaded.)

When I powered up the Kindle, I was surprised to note there’s no “welcome screen,” just a user tip on how to turn pages. (A missed branding opportunity on Amazon’s part…)

Unlike Apple Amazon makes no attempt to “romance the brand.” It appears that Amazon wants to position Kindle as a utilitarian product, focusing on its concrete functional benefits and practical uses. It’s a curious positioning strategy, especially if they’re aiming Kindle at book lovers, people who like me love the experience of reading, and are willing to invest in building a Kindle compatible library.

Somewhat Confusing Usability Model

Touch or Tap to Use

If you’ve used an iPhone or an iPad, you may find the UI a bit confusing. On the Kindle Touch, you touch an item to select it (you point to it and hold your finger there long enough until it highlights). The response time is a tad sluggish.

You touch anywhere in the left-hand area of the screen to go back a page; you touch the middle of the screen or to the right to advance a page. This is intended as a convenience for one-handed readers. (Over time I’ve discovered the swiping horizontally, to left or right, can flip pages, but on my device it doesn’t always work reliably.)

Swiping on the Kindle Touch is not as universally useful as on an iPad. I don’t think there’s a rich “gesture language” for the Touch. It seems that the swipe gesture is only partially functional; when displaying lists, you can swipe vertically to scroll the book list up or down. When reading you can swipe to change pages.

Displaying Collections: Text-Centric Approach

On an iPad, the Kindle app displays images of the book covers as shown here:

The Kindle Touch takes a less visual approach when displaying collections; it simply lists books by their title or author’s name — a missed opportunity for finesse.

I had expected this latest Kindle generation to be more visual in its UI. Sadly, most of the visuals are reserved for the sponsors’ ads, or illustrations within books or magazines.

Kindle Touch: Better for Reading

Although the iPad displays collections in a more visually pleasing manner, the Kindle Touch is better suited — that is, easier on the eyes — for long-term reading. This new Kindle is also smaller, lighter, and takes less effort to hold. All-in-all better for immersive, multi-hour reading.

I just wish the Amazon device had a better UI. Based on a couple of hours’ use, the design language seems inconsistent, hard to predict (especially the home button). As a result it’s going to take longer to learn than expected.

Confusing Home Button

On a Kindle Touch the home button is a set of 4 parallel lines at the bottom of the device. If you’ve learned “home button behaviors” on an IOS device (iPad, iPhone, etc.), expect to be confused. The Kindle’s home button is under utilized.

When the device is in screensaver mode — displaying full-screen ads — you might expect that pressing the home button will take you to your home screen, or resume reading where you’d left off. But in this case pressing home has no effect. Instead you must press the on/off switch to switch from the full-screen ad to resume reading. I find this confusing.

E-Ink — Text Display

Better, But Not Perfect

Given specs of 167 ppi and 16 shades of grey, I had expected reading legibility to approach that of black-and-white newsprint — or a classic newspaper. Yes, there’s higher contrast and improved legibility compared to the Kindle DX I tried a year ago, but the display still disappoints.

On text-dense pages, lines display unevenly, even when it’s obvious that the characters should be rendered identically. This is distracting, because it draws attention away from the delightfully immersive experience of flow when reading.

The uneven display appears to be caused by the way E-Ink renders text on screen: sometimes using different shades of grey or different thicknesses when rendering character shapes. (An inconsistent use of pixels for rendering character glyphs.)

I’m not sure if this is an issue with this particular device, or a limitation with this generation of E-Ink on Kindles.

This bugs me, because I was ready to ignore the lack of typographic diversity, in exchange for highly legible text that does a few things superbly well.

Fixed Orientation

Unlike the Kindle app on iPad, you cannot change the display’s orientation from portrait to landscape mode and have text reflow. Kindle Touch offers portrait mode only.

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→ 4 CommentsTags: iPad 2·Kindle·Kindle Touch

Kindle: Now at the Public Library

October 3rd, 2011 · Bookshelf, Tools & Technology

Despite being an avid reader, I’ve been a latecomer to the Kindle. A year ago I tried a Kindle DX but gave it up for various reasons.

Amazon’s recent announcement of a Kindle beta test with public libraries rekindled my interest (so to speak), so I decided to try again — with the Kindle app for iPad.

Here’s my initial take on borrowing an ebook from the King County Library. It’s convenient, but not without issues for people who love the way books are designed…

A Match Made in Heaven?

My first attempt to borrow a Kindle format book from the public library went nowhere: it was too early — the local library had not yet updated its systems for Kindle. On a second attempt a few days ago, I found the “entry point” in KCLS’ online catalog, and identified a handful of books to borrow for use on the iPad/Kindle. But I’d have to wait; none were available that day.

Today I received an email announcing that my first ebook was available for download, but I’d have to act fast: it would expire within 4 days.

I clicked on the link, discovered that the web page had kept my library card and password credentials from the prior session, and I authorized the “digital book loan” (a process that took several steps).

The lending process takes you to Amazon’s website, where Amazon links the library’s ebook to the authorized Kindle reader (or your “cloud reader”). I imagine that this is part of the behind-the-scenes infrastructure that enforces the DRM policy purchased by KCLS — the limits on how many copies of this ebook may be in circulation at the same time.

So far the process worked smoothly (with a fast broadband connection).

The only glitch occurred with the Kindle app on the iPad — and it was probably just a timing issue with synchronization. That said, the first couple of attempts to download the library’s ebook to the iPad yielded no result.

So I went back to Amazon to ensure the ebook showed up in my authorized Kindle repository, and that this book was properly linked to my iPad. I was pleased to see a clear indication that this was a library copy, versus one that I have purchased…

On my next attempt to download the library’s ebook to the iPad/Kindle, the process was quick and easy.

When the library’s online system is working quickly (which is not always the case), I’d say this whole process would take 5 minutes or less.

Much faster than getting in the car, and driving to and from the nearest library branch.

Which leaves me with my remaining reservation about the current state-of-the-art for books on Kindle (or ePub formats): the lack of typographic sophistication. The current standards may be fine for pulp fiction, but they are a real disappointment for bibliophiles who prefer higher quality “trade fiction” and books with an intrinsic design sensibility.

For the book I borrowed, The Game of Kings by Dorothy Dunnett, the loss of typographic styling makes it difficult in places to comprehend the author’s intent — or even to differentiate literary embellishments from the flow of the narrative.

The Loss of Fidelity Detracts from the Story

To illustrate what I mean, here is a cropped photo of the first page of The Game of Kings, as rendered by the Kindle app on my iPad 2. Except for the chapter head, all the text is styled the same. There’s no additional white space as you would see in the print version.

The Kindle Version (via iPad)

Although it’s not obvious in the photo above, The Game of Kings begins with a poetry excerpt that precedes the first line of narrative. Unfortunately, there’s nothing in the typographic treatment or page layout to signal that this block of text functions differently from the main body of the story.

To make matters worse the poem uses archaic language — and the combination could be off-putting as a first impression.

The Print Version

By way of comparison here is what this page looks like in the print version that’s currently in circulation:

With this layout it’s easy for the reader to understand that the poem sets the theme for the chapter as a whole. It’s clearly set apart from the first line of the narrative.

The loss of typographic and page layout fidelity in the Kindle version is a huge issue for books written by Dorothy Dunnett, an author who liberally embellishes her stories with poems and literary allusions in multiple languages.

Early Days — Or a Battle for Control?

I understand that the digital publishing workflow is still in embryonic state, that it’s difficult for publishers to adapt the print versions to Kindle and ePub format without loss of fidelity.

Among other constraints Apple and Amazon seriously limit the number of typefaces available, a huge obstacle to any designer who wants to preserve artistic intent across all versions and renditions of the book. For the technically adept, there are workarounds with embedded fonts for authors and publishers aiming at Apple’s iBook format, but not for publishers going to Kindle. (At present I suspect we’ll see embedded fonts primarily from the self-publishing community…)

Here’s a wonderful discussion of some of the issues, from my friend Bill Hill, formerly of Aldus and Microsoft, a true pioneer in electronic publishing.

I look forward to the day when ebooks are full-fledged alternatives, with additional convenience benefits, rather than artistic compromises that trade off design intent for ease of adaptation. Leaving you with so much less of the original expression of the author’s intent. And a disappointing reading experience.

I hope Bill Hill is wrong, that we won’t have to wait another 10 years before ebooks achieve typographic and design layout fidelity.

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→ 1 CommentTags: digital books·iPad·Kindle·public library

The Real Problem with Netflix

September 30th, 2011 · Brand Matters, Tools & Technology

Consumers are enraged at Netflix’ steep price increases with good reason — a 60% increase is hard to take during a prolonged recession. As a result well over 1 million have already cancelled their subscription.

From the consumer’s POV, Netflix’ latest plans to split the offering into two unrelated services, Netflix and Qwikster, are utterly ridiculous. Infuriating. And perhaps fatal to the company’s longevity.

Netflix has given its customers the reason — and the motivation — to look elsewhere for a better value.

A Broken Brand Promise

The heavy-handed moves by the company are causing me to rethink how much, if any, I want of Netflix’ service in the future. Like millions of other Netflix subscribers who have become disenchanted with the brand.

One of the reasons for the furor that’s fueling the consumer backlash is Netflix’ broken brand promise. We used to believe Netflix stood as a shining example of a consumer-centered modern corporation.

Now we realize it was just a big myth that we collectively bought into. Myself included.

Netflix has squandered our trust and lost our loyalty. They’ve polluted their brand. Can they overcome this damage?

Setting Up for Streaming Is Not Easy

Netflix is clearly staking its future on mainstream adoption of streaming and digital downloads as the preferred way to “consume” movies, music, TV episodes, games, etc.

But there’s a lurking problem that no one has acknowledged in the furor that’s raging across the blogosphere. And that’s user experience.

If you plan to stream movies to a PC, Mac or an Apple-branded consumer device (like Apple TV or iPad), configuring Netflix and entering your credentials are not too difficult. It’s easy if you’re using a device that’s equipped with a keyboard.

But heaven help you if you’re using a traditional consumer electronics device and must enter user credentials with a remote control device. (You might want to consult a teenage geek who’s comfortable with remotes as an input device.)

To make things worse, just because you’ve gotten it working once doesn’t mean your Netflix configuration will keep working indefinitely. Software updates by Netflix and/or your consumer electronics device manufacturer can cause the configuration to stop working. So you confront the user experience issues all over again.

Netflix doesn’t exert much influence over the consumer electronics ecosystem, so the user experience problems are systemic and likely to persist…

The Remote Was Not Designed as a Keyboard Substitute

Over the past several months I’ve wasted hours trying to keep Netflix streaming to our flat-screen TV, using Sony PlayStation 3 and the PlayStation network as the interface to Netflix. My first attempt to configure streaming took several hours (including several sessions on my Mac to get online help).

After the initial setup it worked just fine — until Sony’s PlayStation network was hacked and everything had to be reset. Since then I’ve had to reset the configuration more than once. I’m not sure if this is caused by Sony’s frequent software updates or some conflict between the PlayStation network and Netflix.

Needless to say, if your interface to a consumer electronics device is a TV remote, having to enter multiple sets of user IDs and passwords is a non-trivial and frustrating exercise. The fact that whatever you type when entering your password is masked with asterisks — ******** — increases your chances of wasting your time due to typos that occur when you use a remote as an inferior keyboard substitute.

My Netflix Solution on the PS3

To fix the broken Netflix configuration required consulting both Netflix’ and Sony’s support resources online. Not surprisingly they weren’t coordinated. Netflix’ site turned out to be distinctly unhelpful, and Sony’s site required some real digging to find the solution.

Not to mention waiting until server maintenance was done (during prime time, I might add).

The eventual solution was:

manually reset the date and time on the PS3
uninstall the Netflix app on the PS3
download and reinstall the Netflix app
re-enter my user ID and password for Netflix (using the remote, of course).

Oh — and I forgot to mention that Sony required me to reset my password to the PlayStation network before beginning this whole procedure — yet another frustrating battle with the remote as keyboard substitute.

This may sound simple, but using the remote as an input device for activities designed for a keyboard meant that these steps took well over an hour — once I understood what was required to fix the problem in first place. Finding the solution required use of a computer.

Net net –

Given the on-going lack of coordination between Netflix and consumer electronics companies when it comes to user experience, usability issues like these will prove to be Netflix’ Achilles heel if their future depends on happy customers.

Thankfully, Netflix has listened to their customers and responded. Plans for Qwikster have been abandoned — the service will not be split in two.

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→ 1 CommentTags: Netflix·Netflix on PS3·streaming media·user experience

How to Survive a Summer Cold

July 31st, 2011 · Back to Basics, Bookshelf

A few days ago a new VitaMix 5200 arrived on our doorstep, followed within hours by the onset of a bad summer cold. Perfect timing.

The quest for wellness

Since then I’ve been living on fruit smoothies and roasted garlic soup. The VitaMix has offered a refreshing way to deal with the unpleasant side-effects of a nasty cold. I’ve also tried other unconventional remedies.

My friend Jenny brought a box of Wellness Fizz tablets, Vitamin-C plus herbal supplements to dissolve in warm water. Consumed 3 or 4 times a day, Wellness Fizz claims to boost the immune system’s ability to fight back. Even so I’ve had to resort to Zicam, decongestants, restorative yoga and lots of sleep…

No miracle cures, only modest relief — but I’ve found some pleasant distractions.

With the Help of a Few Good Books

When too ill to socialize, exercise or work, listening to jazz and classical music can be wonderfully distracting. Likewise a good book or a riveting movie. Forced to slow down while recovering, I’ve found time for some fine books.

I loved Camilla Gibb’s The Beauty of Humanity Movement: A Novel. Set in Vietnam, the story introduces an aging cook — an itinerant street vendor — famous throughout Hanoi for his pho. You learn about Old Man Hung, his history, the proper way to make a bowl of pho — and the experiences and people who’ve touched his life over the years. The story is richly embellished with the details of everyday life in Hanoi, thanks to the author’s background as a social anthropologist. You can almost smell the lemongrass and cilantro on every page…

From Vietnam to Paris, in just a few hundred pages.

“It’s so lovely here it hurts.” — Ernest Hemingway, 1922

This weekend I immersed myself in 1920s Paris with the Lost Generation, thanks to Paula McLain’s The Paris Wife. Her novel deals with Ernest Hemingway’s early struggles to become an author, and his years in Paris with his first wife, Hadley, “who loved him before he was famous,” as an Amazon reviewer wrote.

Although told from Hadley’s point of view, the story sheds some light on the experiences, adventures and troubled relationships that inspired Hemingway to write his first two novels, including the ground-breaking American novel, The Sun Also Rises. You’ll meet some of the luminaries of 20th century literature such as F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ezra Pound, James Joyce, John Dos Passos, Sherwood Anderson, Gertrude Stein, Ford Madox Ford, among others.

After a vicarious weekend in Paris with artists and famous writers, I’m anxious to re-read Hemingway’s memoir of this period, The Moveable Feast — and learn the story through his eyes.

And as for this cold — Enough, already.

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Is It Time for Reading to Be Reinvented?

May 15th, 2011 · Bookshelf, Tools & Technology

Why do people read books? For pleasure or distraction? For self-improvement or to learn something new? For class assignments: textbooks, literature?

Are eBooks best suited for use cases that are fundamentally utilitarian, rather than pleasure seeking?

Why do people read eBooks?

I’ve been pondering these questions for a few days, sparked by an entrepreneur’s pitch. He dreams of reinventing how people read and experience books, at least among young people. He wants to host the conversations that take place around books, via a new “social eBook app” for the iPad and other tablet devices.

A New App for eBooks

His eBook app will be enhanced by “a social wrapper” — in order to encourage online conversations among readers of a book, or exchanges between book fans and the author. In brief, here’s the concept.

Reading as a social experience

Imagine a book opened in front of you. Each page of the book is displayed on the right — pretty much what you’d see if you were using Apple’s iBook app on an iPad. On the left, where you’d normally see the facing page, his app’s UI displays short messages exchanged among readers of that particular book — similar to a Twitter message stream or a chat window.

His notion of reading plus online conversation may offer real benefits to students who must read the same book for a class assignment. As long as his platform allows people to express their ideas or questions without the artificial constraint of the 140-character tweet, this technology may lead to enhanced learning and student engagement. Assuming, that is, that the books they need to read are made available for his eBook app.

But I’d like to share my impression about the implications of this approach for people who read for pleasure.

First Impression — Not for Me

My reaction to the new concept was tepid, even though I own an iPad 2 and have been collecting apps for it. I’m a voracious reader: consuming between 100-200 books a year, for pleasure, plus several dozen business books. You’d think I’d be the ideal customer for this enhanced eBook app given the value I place on reading.

But here’s why the proposition doesn’t appeal to me:

At my level of “addiction to reading,” the public library is the most cost-effective source of books for me.
I love the look and feel of a well-designed book. So far, the eBooks that I’ve seen (iBook and Kindle formats) lack any real typographic elegance — each page looks pretty much the same. Books become boring as a result.
When converted to EPUB® format, the book’s original page layout is drastically scaled back when rendered by the digital book reader. This simplification can reduce meaning or comprehension — whatever was intended by the way the designer laid out text, headlines and images on the page to be printed.

For example, the sample shown here condenses a lot of information to a single page, thanks to the design choices that are expressed through this layout.

But my most important reason for preferring today’s book format to a “social eBook Reader” is the desire to preserve the holy grail of reading: the state of flow, a wonderful emotional state that is the hallmark of the world’s best books.

Reading & The Joys of “Flow”

When reading a well-told story, I’m immersed in the experience — caught up in the state of “flow.” My personal boundaries dissolve when I enter the storyteller’s world: I feel the heat and dust of the North African souk, or the penetrating cold and damp of the Scottish highlands.

Psychologists describe flow as a very desirable state of mind (source: WikiPedia):

According to Csíkszentmihályi, flow is completely focused motivation. It is a single-minded immersion and represents perhaps the ultimate in harnessing the emotions in the service of performing and learning. In flow, the emotions are not just contained and channeled, but positive, energized, and aligned with the task at hand…. The hallmark of flow is a feeling of spontaneous joy, even rapture, while performing a task although flow is also described as a deep focus on nothing but the activity — not even oneself or one’s emotions.

While it’s possible to achieve flow while reading an eBook, the experience of flow is so rewarding that choosing to interrupt it for chat messages is the last thing I can imagine doing when reading for pleasure.

But this may be a generational preference… Perhaps teenagers and young adults are willing to sacrifice the experience of flow in order to check in with each other. Or maybe their hyper-active, multi-tasking world is not one that’s amenable to flow; not having experienced it, they have no reason to want it. For them, is connection preferable to flow?

Perhaps my real issue with this concept is that I prefer asynchronous to synchronous socializing, when it comes to the experience of reading a book.

Yes, We Engage Socially around Books

My friends and I are highly likely to talk with each other when it comes to books or magazines we’ve enjoyed. Books are common topics of conversation among us. We bring bags of books to social events, for sharing with each other — our own lending library, if you will.

We always talk about books (or movies) when we go for hikes or long walks, and often over a glass of wine or a shared meal.

Some are avid book club members, and love talking about a book with others during semi-structured club meetings.

After finishing a book that’s made a huge impression, we’re quite likely to email a recommendation.

Most of us already own an iPad or a Kindle; all of us have computers. So it’s not the device that’s the issue.

It’s just hard to imagine that we’d want to chat in real-time while reading for pleasure, when we so enjoy talking about books face to face…

The entrepreneur is actively seeking financing, so I chose not to identify his company nor his product. I wish him the best of luck, as long as there are enough people who will value digital books enhanced by a social experience.

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On Love and Miracles

April 21st, 2011 · Back to Basics

My brother and his family are battling cancer again: the third time for his 19-year-old stepdaughter, Lauren. Just over a year since my brother recovered from his own bout with tongue and throat cancer.

Theirs is an inspiring story.

Lala, The Warrior Princess

They fight back with love and hope, with prayerful blessings from thousands of old and new friends and family. They use social networking to channel the love and fuel my niece’s spirits. My brother keeps us posted with his blog. While optimistic, they recognize that Lauren has begun a marathon, so they’re doing everything they can to stoke her fires and guide the energy in productive forms of healing…

Last week they feared for Lauren’s life: the tumors had become so aggressive and invasive that they were choking her very breath. It was a sudden onset: she checked into the ICU 10 days ago with what might have been pneumonia, but was instead a recurrence of nerve sheath cancer, this time wrapped around her bronchia.

This is deadly serious business, but my brother and his family look for affirmations of joy and wellness wherever they can.

Thanks to what my brother calls her warrior princess spirit, my niece fought back, regained control over her breathing, and got herself discharged from the hospital. This week she’s recuperating at home, and taking calls from Lyle Lovett and other celebrities who are inspired by her story. (She reacts as only a teenager would…)

No one on her medical team would have believed this to be possible last week. Her oncologist can only ascribe it to a miracle of love and community — the power of the human spirit — rather than the wonders of medical science.

Lala Needs You

You can help too. Join Lala, “the warrior princess,” and shower her with love and hopeful blessings. Join her Facebook group… Pray for her.

Dedicate your yoga practice to her.

You’ll be amazed at what might happen.

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Christine Thompson> What's on my mind: life and work

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