See Read

I travel quite in the Madrid subway, the city where I live for about three years, and in recent months (therefore, I suppose, Christmas gifts and Kings) have noticed that for every three trips I do, at least I run one with someone reading a Kindle or something. I seek not to statistics from my experience, tied to specific times and routes, but I can say that yesterday, while traveling on line 5 Papyre a reader sitting to my right, I had to wonder how they change our habits reading and reading of the act of perception of others, when the old woman traveling on my left, absorbed in his magazine with monstrous pictures of the Duchess of Alba, the station fell and Diego de Leon (I swear on a Bible, but is paper) in its place sat a woman with a Sony ebook, so that for the first time in my life (though I suspect not the last), I was between two electronic readers.

I'm not against developments or changes because, among other reasons, we grant eternal youth of the first times. As for the eBooks promoted inspire me curious. I like the invention of a screen, in theory, is less harmful to the eyes than regular computers. Electronic books seem practical when a move is tantamount to move hundreds of volumes or, for example, when we need to check the overnight a book that is not achieved in our city and can not wait to bring us the mail. I also think that lend themselves well to the reference material (dictionaries, encyclopedias), but, truth be told, when reading a novel, a poem or a story I still prefer him to bed or chair with a good book paper. At the same time, I worry that because digital formats are pirated books with impunity download music today, not to mention the musicians that make up the loss (at least partially) with concerts and radio copyright or TV, for example, while the writers have no alternative: we only charge a royalty for every book sold and when invited to public lectures (in a bookstore or a library) hopefully thank us, except in a few countries like Germany where these readings are paid. eBooks can be created from document files like DOC or PDF using a tool like this one.

Long before e-books, the writer Julien Gracq observed in his essay writing Reading (1980) that "the last fifteen years, which seems to be having much in the history of our literature, have made ​​more changes in the publishing industry and in the book trade than those who were known since Gutenberg. " Everything suggests, following this reasoning Gracq, readers (especially readers) of the underground world of packaging have changed much more than content. But I'm not sure. And if my humble statistical study of the subject falters at this point it is no accident: I can easily make a census of the colors, shapes and formats called "ereaders" but I can not say which authors and titles being read as such information has become invisible. There's something about this phenomenon that could be compared with the old and emergence of the walkman , when music became a secret in his ear. However, in the case of music, there was (and still are) bad leaks headphones and high volumes and it was not necessary, as with the ebooks, an attitude too indiscreet to know, at least, if our neighbor's seat reading an essay, novel, magazine, or work material.

I had two aunts who were teachers of literature in Buenos Aires. One of them committed the "slip" to read, and then, a book inappropriate for its range. I remember when I wanted to read an annotated biography of Carlos Monzon (then at the height of his fame), and as no one should see it with "it" decided to line the cover to conceal the crime. There are other people that comes as my aunt, but far from legion, for we love the books, therefore, be on public transport, in a waiting room or in a cafe is often a barometer of what " is reading ". Detect not only titles and authors, but to see someone with a work that tempts us read, for example, assess whether it has already reached this stage that our treasured memory perhaps somewhat disrupted. The ebooks, unfortunately, erased tracks and experiences like that. Each page looks like another, as the book of a marble statue.

Check reading is, for centuries, a show as informative as sensual. One of my favorite paintings in the Musée d'Orsay, Paris, is the reader , by Fantin-Latour, link in a chain of works that present a woman with a book, from Renoir and Monet to Picasso and Balthus, from the "Reading submissive" to "reading distraíida" of Magritte. About Reader submissive Magritte, Aira César recently wrote a comment on some inspired idea reminiscent of Marcel Duchamp: the title is a "color" of the table (more on the case of painters such as Magritte and De Chirico, titrators excellent). It occurs to me, from this, that the loss of data in the book you see our neighbor in the subway or the bus, train or plane is by permission of Duchamp, "a color less." Already we can not say, as before, "was tall, pale, blond and was reading Stendhal?" What shall we say? "She was dark, with green eyes and had a Samsung brand ebook?

Source in Spanish.