The Family that Sees Everything Four Times

We are a four-computer family, a ‘big computer’ for mum and dad (dad also has a PC at work) a laptop for when one of us is working away from home, and laptops for the two teenage kids. And obviously, when it comes to mobile phones, we’re a four-mobile family. Stands to reason: how else would we keep in touch with each other?


We’d have four MP3 players if you count the ones on our phones, ditto cameras. We don’t have four TV sets, but I know families that do. But hey, we have hundreds of books.

And that in a nutshell sums up the e-book reader problem. Am I likely to fork out four times for an iPad/Kindle/Sony Reader just so that our family of four can all read books, magazines and newspapers whenever we want? Not on your life!

Imagine for a moment the young family, intent on giving their children the best start in life, board books, lift-the-flap-books, picture books:

‘Scuse me, dad, can I borrow your iPad so that baby Tom can read the enhanced e-book version (including embedded audio and video) of ‘The Very Hungry Caterpillar’?

And the battles that might rage. ‘Oy Tom! Gi’s back the iPad. Daddy wants to read the Financial Times .’

At what age will kids ‘come of age’ and have their own readers? Like the age of driving a car, it will be a relief to parents when they don’t depend on you for their reading material. It’ll bring a whole new meaning to the term ‘independent reader’.

Then imagine the social self-searching about when will be the best age to graduate to your very own device. Writers of ‘How to Bring Up Children’ will have whole chapters on it. Will the e-book reader stack up alongside the owner-occupied laptop and bedroom TV as pre-teen must-haves? Will the age at which they get their own become younger and younger till baby Tom has his to giggle at? It might even be a dinky-sized baby version with large print and brighter colours, all neatly framed in a powder-blue console, dangling from the bonnet of his pram. Manufacturers are always quick to spot a gap in the market.

And that’s just the thin end of the wedge. What happens when some publishers begin to insist that certain books will only be available as ebooks? Like the elderly people who can’t get information because it has all gone online, those without ebook readers will be disenfranchised.

Electronic versions of books are not just about the book. It is about reading. And reading is not like listening to music or watching videos. It is not simply a matter of choice.

Simply put, if everything shifts to electronic formats and we don’t keep up with the hardware, we will be forced to queue up to read on whatever ebook reader is available. Like queues for food, who in the civilised world will stomach that?