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I'm still waiting for this e-reader to turn up which may happen soon now as WH Smith's website say it is in stock. This hiatus in my switch to a digital domain has got me thinking about the last big reading technology switch. This was of course the switch from scrolls to bound books which took place from about 100AD (I think).
The questions I am vaguely interested in are:
- why did people switch from using scrolls to books?
- does this help us predict how people will use e-books?
Books, Scrolls and Christians
Amongst the first texts to switch to the new fangled device were the early Christian scribbles, which seems a far cry from our own times (i.e. the last 400 years) when pornography has been the trail blazer for new ways of sharing content. Maybe after the hedonism and excess of the Greek and Roman aristocracy, abstinence and celibacy seemed exotic (and no doubt easier to put into practice). So why did books catch on and scrolls die out? How was this connected to the emergence of Christianity throughout the Roman and ex-Roman empire?
The fact that books took longer to become the dominate text storage form in Asia suggests that Christianity was an influence.
Part of the reason for the switch from scrolls to books may have been due to the association in people's minds of books with Christianity, as it became popular. And perhaps part of the reason why Christianity became popular (aside from the theological ones) was its associations with this new technology. Christianity was the future, and not only with hindsight. Using books also helped to differentiate Christianity from Judaism which was and is heavily into scrolls.
The Book is mightier than the Scroll
One cause of Christianity's rapid and wide ranging spread was the copying and sharing of books, which possessed a number of advantages over scrolls for this purpose:
- you can hide them more easily (eg by putting them in your pants) .
- you can get more text into a book, making them cheaper and easier to carry (as you scroll through a scroll the side you aren't reading gets scuffed and dirty so usually only one side of the paper is written on).
Also: you can flick more easily from one part of a book to another than you can with a scroll. You can imagine how this would appeal to the fatalistic Christian: shall I spend the next few weeks styliting up a pole or not? Well here it says "Though the Lord be high, yet hath he respect unto the lowly"... well maybe not today then.
I suspect the effect of books on the propagation of The Word was minimal compared to the effect of, say, preachers. However a virtuous cycle between the popularity of books and the popularity of Christianity is discernable.
Of course it is not all Good News. Scrolls are much easier to put together than books, both initially and if you want to add a bit on the end later. You can draw long pictures in scrolls.... and... er... that's all I can think of!
Scrolls, Books and E-Books
So what does this suggest for the future of e-books?
- the "flick through" ability of e-books is theoretically better than books because you should be able to look up words and phrases. It should be possible to incorporate an "open a random" page function for the fatalists amongst us too.
- you can hide an e-book very easily. Just rename the file as something else.
- e-books are easier to carry than books because they weigh nothing.
So far so good, and not only if you are a member of a persecuted text focused minority group. On less optimistic notes:
- books may be cheaper than scrolls, but e-books plus an e-book reader are certainly not cheaper than books at the moment (more on this later).
The questions I am vaguely interested in are:
- why did people switch from using scrolls to books?
- does this help us predict how people will use e-books?
Books, Scrolls and Christians
Amongst the first texts to switch to the new fangled device were the early Christian scribbles, which seems a far cry from our own times (i.e. the last 400 years) when pornography has been the trail blazer for new ways of sharing content. Maybe after the hedonism and excess of the Greek and Roman aristocracy, abstinence and celibacy seemed exotic (and no doubt easier to put into practice). So why did books catch on and scrolls die out? How was this connected to the emergence of Christianity throughout the Roman and ex-Roman empire?
The fact that books took longer to become the dominate text storage form in Asia suggests that Christianity was an influence.
Part of the reason for the switch from scrolls to books may have been due to the association in people's minds of books with Christianity, as it became popular. And perhaps part of the reason why Christianity became popular (aside from the theological ones) was its associations with this new technology. Christianity was the future, and not only with hindsight. Using books also helped to differentiate Christianity from Judaism which was and is heavily into scrolls.
The Book is mightier than the Scroll
One cause of Christianity's rapid and wide ranging spread was the copying and sharing of books, which possessed a number of advantages over scrolls for this purpose:
- you can hide them more easily (eg by putting them in your pants) .
- you can get more text into a book, making them cheaper and easier to carry (as you scroll through a scroll the side you aren't reading gets scuffed and dirty so usually only one side of the paper is written on).
Also: you can flick more easily from one part of a book to another than you can with a scroll. You can imagine how this would appeal to the fatalistic Christian: shall I spend the next few weeks styliting up a pole or not? Well here it says "Though the Lord be high, yet hath he respect unto the lowly"... well maybe not today then.
I suspect the effect of books on the propagation of The Word was minimal compared to the effect of, say, preachers. However a virtuous cycle between the popularity of books and the popularity of Christianity is discernable.
Of course it is not all Good News. Scrolls are much easier to put together than books, both initially and if you want to add a bit on the end later. You can draw long pictures in scrolls.... and... er... that's all I can think of!
Scrolls, Books and E-Books
So what does this suggest for the future of e-books?
- the "flick through" ability of e-books is theoretically better than books because you should be able to look up words and phrases. It should be possible to incorporate an "open a random" page function for the fatalists amongst us too.
- you can hide an e-book very easily. Just rename the file as something else.
- e-books are easier to carry than books because they weigh nothing.
So far so good, and not only if you are a member of a persecuted text focused minority group. On less optimistic notes:
- books may be cheaper than scrolls, but e-books plus an e-book reader are certainly not cheaper than books at the moment (more on this later).
- books retain their status as vehicles for religious dogma and have also developed into a symbol of intellectualism.
- e-reader technology is not yet at the stage where it can compete with book "display". Most notably it doesn't do colour.
Dead sea books?
The first two of these three points are the most important problems that e-reader and e-book sellers face at the moment because they are immediately soluble and on their own enough to overcome the third. So in order to ease e-books into the mainstream:
- the marginal cost of owning a new e-book has to be noticeably smaller than that of a new book, perhaps a quarter to a half of the price.
- e-reading needs to displace books either as the primary reading device for the pious and/or intellectual. Perhaps Rick Warren could be convinced to give away self help e-books to boost the Christian image (with the side effect of boosting Christianity of course...), or maybe Steven Fry could be paid to use one. The trouble is that IMUO (unsubstantiated) religious people and keen book readers tend to be luddites.
Conclusion and bibliography
A final note of caution emerges from the scroll vs books tale. It took books about 400 years to displace scrolls as the primary reading form, according to the archaeological record. Things happen more quickly these days - it's much easier to keep pace with what the Greeks are up to - but switching from books to e-books is clearly going to take many years.
Just in case any of this post has given the illusion of detailed knowledge my sources are as follows:
1. City of the Sharp-Nosed Fish: Greek Lives in Roman Egypt (Peter Parsons)
2. The Birth of the Codex (Colin H Roberts) (Only read bits that found their way onto the web)
3. A few random websites including "The Bible Wheel" and of course "Wikipedia"
4. I made it up
- e-reader technology is not yet at the stage where it can compete with book "display". Most notably it doesn't do colour.
Dead sea books?
The first two of these three points are the most important problems that e-reader and e-book sellers face at the moment because they are immediately soluble and on their own enough to overcome the third. So in order to ease e-books into the mainstream:
- the marginal cost of owning a new e-book has to be noticeably smaller than that of a new book, perhaps a quarter to a half of the price.
- e-reading needs to displace books either as the primary reading device for the pious and/or intellectual. Perhaps Rick Warren could be convinced to give away self help e-books to boost the Christian image (with the side effect of boosting Christianity of course...), or maybe Steven Fry could be paid to use one. The trouble is that IMUO (unsubstantiated) religious people and keen book readers tend to be luddites.
Conclusion and bibliography
A final note of caution emerges from the scroll vs books tale. It took books about 400 years to displace scrolls as the primary reading form, according to the archaeological record. Things happen more quickly these days - it's much easier to keep pace with what the Greeks are up to - but switching from books to e-books is clearly going to take many years.
Just in case any of this post has given the illusion of detailed knowledge my sources are as follows:
1. City of the Sharp-Nosed Fish: Greek Lives in Roman Egypt (Peter Parsons)
2. The Birth of the Codex (Colin H Roberts) (Only read bits that found their way onto the web)
3. A few random websites including "The Bible Wheel" and of course "Wikipedia"
4. I made it up
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