Thursday 21 July 2005

There is an interesting piece by Bobbie Johnson in today's Guardian on writers and the web. It looks at the use made of the web by three writers - J K Rowling, Chris Cleave and Jasper Fforde. Johnson concludes that the web has not, as might have been expected, killed the art of reading books.
Science fiction has a long history of slavish, unsociable technology addicts who trade in their real lives for virtual ones. But the greatest fear of the literary world - that people would stop reading books altogether - now seems as absurd as the plot of a melodrama. Not only is today's wired society reading more, but it has found new ways to support its reading habits: through websites, instant messaging and email. The web is just another weapon in the author's arsenal.
The greatest fear of the literary world? Or a slightly sensationalist hook on which to hang an otherwise sensible article?

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