A new emphasis on reading

I like that the infusion of so-called e-readers has put a new emphasis on reading in general, on books in particular.

I couldn't understand what motivated Steve Jobs, the head of Apple and a supposed technology visionary, to declare not so many years ago that America wasn't a country of readers any more.

Here's what he said to the New York Times in 2008 on why he thought the Amazon Kindle e-reader would fail:

It doesn’t matter how good or bad the product is, the fact is that people don’t read anymore. Forty percent of the people in the U.S. read one book or less last year. The whole conception is flawed at the top because people don’t read anymore.

Yet, his iPad has now become one of the premiere e-readers out there.

Granted, there's lots more to do on an iPad than just read, but look at how crowded the e-reader genre is these days, with products that preceded the iPad (the first generation Kindle from Amazon and Nook from Barnes & Noble) and those that have come to the fore post the iPad (Samsung's Galaxy Tab, for example).

It is high on the Christmas lits of a lot of people.

According to data cited in a New York Times article, about nine million electronic reading devices are in circulation in the United States. That could jump in the coming weeks to at least 10.3 million e-readers by year's end.

I guarantee you that other products will enter the market after Christmas, and competition will grow among publishers and book sellers to get their products into the hands of those with the devices.

Bookstores will step up their online offerings of titles. Even Google, with its normal spot-on assessment of trends, has launched an online bookstore.

I acknowledge the angst about the future of print and, like many people, I don't want to see print on paper disappear. My professional career was built on newspapers, ink and printing presses.

Books engage Baby Boomers such as me. They appeal to my sense: The scruff of the page against my skin, the visual appeal of the font (I'm a sucker for Georgia and Garamond).

A good writer takes me places where I'm currently not.

But I also know that technology changes things.

Just as Guttenberg's first press drastically changed story telling from oral to written, so too have computers changed the distribution of content from paper to the ether.

We who read continue to read, we just read differently.

And maybe technology gives those who were less inclined to read a greater opportunity and incentive to read.

I know from my reading that e-readers have helped Baby Boomers with adjustable font sizes for aging eyes that don't focus as well as they used to, and for eyes degenerating into macular distortion.

I know Baby Boomers who are voracious readers in print who continue that pace -- and even step up that pace -- with their e-readers because of the vast volume of content they can load onto their devices.

I can't say there's a tactile appeal to these new devices, but certainly there's a visual appeal that will engage readers, young and old alike.

I don't worry about older readers, frankly. If they read yesterday, they continue to read today and will continue to read tomorrow.

If these devices are a means to engage younger readers, then more power to them.

One way or the other, we can make Steve Jobs eat his words about reading.