Kindle e-reader motivates reading

I wonder whether this could offer a glimpse of the future of literacy? Kindle e-reader motivates less-enthusiastic readers: "The e-reader has features that make the text audible, increase or decrease font size and let readers make notes about the book. 'It's interesting to see the kinds of things these kids have been able to do,' Larson said. She said sometimes they make comments summarizing the plot, therefore reinforcing their understanding of the book. Other times they ponder character development, jotting down things like 'If I were him, I'd say no way!'"
In one sense some of this is what some of us have learned to do with paper books in order to study them. The thing being that we were mostly brought up to 'respect' books and not to deface them. E books invite such 'disrespect' and the interactivity encourages a more constructivist approach to the texts. Worth pondering.

Worth pondering especially when that kind of attitude is brought to the biblical texts. I would argue that in Islam's attitude to the Qur'an we see writ large or intensified the then-cultural reverence for books. An attitude with is more tenuously held in the Christian tradition: the gospels being written down were not the first reflex of the Christian communities; the stories were told first. (To be fair, the Qur'an is supposed to be recital first but was much sooner 'reduced' to writing). I envisage the gospel stories being told against a background of interrogation and rumination and then, when the form that 'tells well' and 'remembers' well is honed, fining that they get written down.

Still pondering ...