The E-reader Is a Powerful Tool for Writers
An E-Reader Is a Writer’s Card File
One of the most important tools for a writer in today’s world is an e-reader. Writers can use them not to replace books as much as replaces card files. Since I use Amazon Kindle on my tablet, my experience comes from that application. I am sure the others have the similar features.
What makes it such an important tool is that it is searchable. I know there are some who will never use an electronic reader. They love books from the ability to touch them to the smell of the pages. Asking them to consider using an e-reader instead of books is like mistaking caviar for blackberry jelly*. As a writer, how can I deny them this pleasure? How can anyone take away the experience writers have when they finally hold their first book in their hands — whether it came from a traditional publisher or self-publisher. As writers, we love books.
There is a difference between the book as something we can enjoy and an e-reader as a tool for writing.
When I am reading a book whether for enjoyment or for an article, I can highlight passages that mean a lot to me or that are relevant to the topic I am researching. My Kindle not only allows me to highlight the words too, it also compiles them in a list almost like a card file. Now I can go back over the list of important words or easily find them in the search feature. I can also add a note to them to remind me of the relevance of the citation.
For example, I have to write this week on Jesus’ words in Matthew: “Render unto Caesar what is Caesar’s Render unto God what is God’s.” I remember the minute I saw the words in the Gospel, I remember a discussion of them in another book which is in on my Kindle App: America on Trial: A Defense of the Founding by Robert Reilly (Ignatius 2020).
Reilly describes Jesus’ words as radical for the time for they indicated that not everything was Caesar’s. The human being is God’s not Caesar’s.
From the time I remember reading the quote to actually finding it in my Kindle, it took maybe two minutes.
I not only highlighted the passage, previously, but all I really needed to do to find it quickly was to search the word ‘render’. I then went through the results list on the Kindle app. I am sure you can do this on other e-readers too.
I was at Reilly’s use of the pericope in a matter of minutes. I had, at my fingertips, a powerful explanation of the radical nature of those words that I could not have located so quickly without the app.
If I only used the book, I would have walked over to my bookcase, searched for and located it. I would have to either search the index or the table of contents to find the exact page where Reilly treats the words of Jesus. If I did not find it there, I would have to reason where in the book it may be and then, hopefully, I would have highlighted the pericope to find it more quickly. You can see the radical difference in time between the two forms of search. The results are the same, the difference is time.
For writers, the e-reader is as important as the laptop.
The other option for organization information is to highlight passages using different colors and then I can easily search through list of color-coded highlights on my e-reader.
For example, the most important citations I may need, especially if I am going to interview an author, I highlight in red. Then when I go back and look at the list of quotes on the app, I can see the red ones immediately. I can also read through all the highlighted quotes and change the color based on whether I still need that quote or whether I think it is as important as when I first saw the words.
There is an other benefit as well. That is the dictionary option. We know that if you find a word you do not understand you can easily look it up in a dictionary. You do not need an e-reader but the device makes it easier to do in less time.
I am a triglot. Currently, I am reading O Alquimista by Paolo Coelho on my Kindle. Since, Portuguese is my third language, I will check the dictionary more times than if I read it in English. So I can just tap on the word to find the definition which in this case is also in Portuguese. It is a great benefit.
I will admit it also has a drawback. It can be too easy to look up a word. When you are learning a language or growing into it, most people, myself included, teach to refrain from using the dictionary except as a last resort. Instead, the reader can reason the word’s meaning by seeing it in context. If I immediately go to the dictionary which is an advantage on an e-reader, I can short-cut that process taking the easy or lazy way out. However, I just need self-discipline and use the dictionary only as a last resort.
In any case, books are a great gift and when the pandemic ends, I will take enormous joy in returning to my literary hangouts. I will again go through the new books at chain stores and the new and used items at independent booksellers. I will return to reading and writing at the library.
No one needs to replace books but for those who write, the e-reader becomes as essential a device as the keyboard and mouse.
*Yes, I did that once.