The Once and Future Book: Pages Unbound

The notion of the page has already been changing for some time due to the way much of the information is available on the web – blogs and most websites, for instance, don’t have pages. We get tabs and other means of orienting ourselves. The scrolling nature of informational hits online are quite like, I would imagine, reading a scroll. There are often headings, but no pages or page numbers. When reading this way I feel a bit adrift in a sea of words. Thinking of Andrew Piper's statement, that our relationship to the “page [is] a fundamental interface of text” (p. 48) I wonder where that leaves me.

I think the page – not just turning a page – fixes the reader in time and space with regard to the book or whatever printed matter is being read. You could say it is a way of measuring “progress”. There are codes or sets of expectations that are embedded in the notion of the page, such as the “seriality” of it, or the “pathways”, to use Andrew Piper’s expression. Will this impact our relationship with time? our relationship to information? Will we lose sense of direction and become disoriented? We have become accustomed to consuming and experiencing books, hence pages, in a certain way; possibly the book has shaped us as much as we have shaped the book.

I like Andrew Piper’s statement that “reflecting on the nature of the page, rather than just the technology” is a good way to anchor the concept and the conversation. Once again, as stated by Piper, it is good to reflect on “what pages have done and what we would do without them” (p. 48). A categorical rejection of “enhancements” would be foolish.

I really liked the image of the “Three Versions of Psalm 118” used by Piper (p. 47) that represents quite poignantly efforts to enhance the page.

I think the power of our own imaginations already enriches texts when experiencing a well written text (I am thinking specifically of literature here) but I think having other integrated information that can contextualise a text could be valuable – not to mention fun. I came across the tool called “Beneath the Ink”. As described on the eBook Architects website, “These enhancements are called Binks. Each Bink gives readers more insight into the characters, places, concepts, and words that pique their curiosity — without ever leaving their page.” That could be very interesting.

If it truly enhances (I would prefer the word “enrich”) the experience of “the book”, then I’m all for it. And I suppose that is ultimately a very individual thing.

It was hard to find an example of an enhanced page since I don't have an e-book reader. I came across a narrated version of The Mud Puddle by Robert Munsch. Not only is it narrated, but the words on the page, when being read out loud, turn red. This helps the child learn to recognise the words and