Using the Web to Make Reading More Fun

The recent introduction of Amazon.com’s Kindle, an electronic device that, as the Wall Street Journal’s Walt Mossberg writes, “makes buying E-Books easy, reading them hard,” is the latest attempt to translate the experience of reading books into an electronic medium.

To be sure, the Internet is changing the way we interact with words and music. Newspapers struggle with the new technology, and music companies’ control over their products continues to decline. Some are predicting that the Net will do the same to the publishing business. Many have tried, and, at least so far, none have succeeded in bringing the experience of reading a book into a digital format.

That doesn’t mean that the experience of reading can’t be augmented by using the Internet. I just finished Khaled Hosseini’s “The Kite Runner,” a full-bodied, powerful portrait of Afghani society and culture set against the events of the last three decades, which includes the Soviet invasion and the years of Taliban rule.

Much of the book takes place in Kabul, Afghanistan’s capital, so the first thing I did was to open Google Earth and fly to Kabul. Not all major cities around the world have detailed satellite photos yet, but you can drift above Kabul and look over the entire city in extreme close-up. Almost like you were a kite.

It wasn't long before I was above Wazir Akbar Khan, the neighborhood where Amir and Hassan grew up, and floating over the hill where Amir and Hassan wrote their names in a tree. Google Earth users have inserted photos in the middle of the neighborhood that offers a view from ground level. (Google doesn’t offer the Street Level view for Kabul yet.) Even remembering that the city has changed a lot since the 1970s, it is still helpful for getting some kind of flavor of the city. Most of the major buildings, many mentioned in the book, can be seen in ground-level photographs, too, and the city’s huge soccer stadium, where the Taliban held public executions, can be easily spotted from the air. I was also able to trace the escape route taken by the family from Kabul into Pakistan during the period of the Soviet invasion.

Next I typed names of buildings, streets and businesses as they came up into Google Images, which rarely disappoint as more travelers post their photos on the Net. And I created smart feeds in my NewsGator account for The Kite Runner and author Khaled Hosseini, which gave me access to much more information, including that the book has been made into a motion picture. (I caught a screening this week. The film is a pretty accurate bare-bones retelling of the story that, like electronic books so far, lacks the richness, depth and subtlety a novel can give you.)

The jury is still out on whether the Internet will take over the publishing industry. But for the time being, take advantage of everything it does offer.

Comments

[Vectorpedia (Rick)]

I believe within a few short years the internet will take over the publishing industry as the e-books advance in technology and distribution. Since the kids live on the internet, reading on the web is natural to them.