I Have a Library Card but I Still Love the Internet

I was on the bus going to work one dark winter morning and the guy sitting in front of me was reading from a Kindle. I have to admit I started reading over his shoulder. I have read criticisms over the battery life and the screen being quiet difficult to see in the sunlight, but it seemed to be working just fine to me and would take up much less space in my backpack then the book I was reading at the time. I decided I'd look into buying one.

Imagining myself back where I used to live, Malta, on the beach with a kindle didn't really seem right. What if it got wet or got sand in it? I was put off by the price and also the odd fact that Amazon can take your book back if the publication is withdrawn for some reason. If I buy a gadget then it belongs to me and I think I should be able to do what I want with it (including modifying it if I want to).

However the internet has given us some interesting new ideas on books. They no longer need to be read in just one way and have one ending.

Literary Hypertext books change with your decisions. The ending can change and the main body of the book can be completely different when reading it another time. I have tried to read one such book and to be frank I found it really confusing, but I was impressed by the potential. I think I had issues following the narrative; which lead to my confusion.

All in all though I'm on team hypermedia. One of the reasons I love reading online is that you can always follow a link to get more information, or see a video relating to what you have just read about. It may be perhaps because I'm the kind of person who is either completely interested and therefore wants as much information on the subject as possible, or I'm completely uninterested and will be happy just to know the basics on that particular subject.