Your E-Book Is Reading You
Alter, Alexandra. "Your E-Book Is Reading You." The Wall Street Journal, June 29, 2012.
From the article: "In the past, publishers and authors had no way of knowing
what happens when a reader sits down with a book. Does the reader quit after
three pages, or finish it in a single sitting? Do most readers skip over the
introduction, or read it closely, underlining passages and scrawling notes in
the margins? Now, e-books are providing a glimpse into the story behind the
sales figures, revealing not only how many people buy particular books, but how
intensely they read them.
For centuries, reading has largely been a solitary and private act, an
intimate exchange between the reader and the words on the page. But the rise of
digital books has prompted a profound shift in the way we read, transforming
the activity into something measurable and quasi-public.
The major new players in e-book publishing—Amazon, Apple and Google—can
easily track how far readers are getting in books, how long they spend reading
them and which search terms they use to find books." Read more