"Jonathan Sachs" <xxxxxxx@earthlink.not> wrote in message
news:7r0i91hkius7q5s39bp021kp040a3nn9v0@4ax.com...
> On Sat, 28 May 2005 16:27:25 -0700, "Alan"
> <info@optioncity.REMOVETHIS.net> wrote:
>
>>However, the need to have multiple pages that you can physically
>>'turn' seems to me entirely psychological unless I am missing something.
>> I don't feel that need at all.
>
> I can assure you that some other people do (I am one), and I suspect
> that even more will resist giving up that capability even if they do
> not need it.
>
> When I'm reading a book, I often flip back through the last several
> pages to compare what I'm reading to something I recently read, review
> an important concept being built upon, etc. Sometimes I flip forward
> for similar purposes. Sometimes I insert Post-it sheets as bookmarks
> in a few places or a few dozen places. All of those things are more
> awkward with an e-book, which makes them distracting and makes reading
> more difficult. Sometimes I actually need to look at two pages at
> once, for example to see a graph or table while reading text that
> relates to it, and with an e-book that is simply impossible.

I do these things, too, and I agree that a properly designed e-book should
make them *easier*, not harder. That's why it's compelling to me.
First, assume for sake of argument that my ideal book exists with
perhaps a a good voice recog. and certainly *two* facing 6 x 9 pages,
which now seems a critical requirment to me.

Then, showing *any two* pages side by side would be easier than
a physical book. You simply announce "show pages 124 and 186".
Or, press a button to 'hold' the current page on the left, while you press
another button to flip forward or backward through pages that display
on the right.

Post-it notes: you announce "mark this page" or "mark the sentence starting
with ... " or press a "mark this page" button or use a tablet pen to
underline
something you want to remember. Later, when you come back to the
book, you can ask to see the marked pages or passages, or see new pages
that have been created that highlights of the text surrounding your
underlined areas.
I think software opens up so many more possibilities here.

For example, I have been doing some research lately involving the
probabilistic
concept of 'local time'. Not only would I like to electronically put post-it
notes
in a given book that discusses this, I would like to ask the book to
electronically bring up *all* the other books in my library that discuss the
same subject. This is quite tedious with my real books (they are scattered
all over my house), but would be vastly more convenient with the envisioned
device. Then, I could put a given page on hold, and flip through other
pages in other books on the facing display page.

Another problem, for me anyway, is that even when I have found what I need
in my own library, I
don't necessarily remember where I found it the next time. My e-book
would remember all these successful searches for me, say stored under the
'local time' search label. Indexing and local searching is becoming a big
deal for
me, and I have become a big fan of desktop search. I would want my e-book
to know about/implement/talk with/ those applications besides
having access to global searching on the net.

regards,
alan