I was quite sceptical about the idea of a little gadget that wanted to replace paper books but having looked into it a bit, they do actually seem like a good idea. The biggest thing to point out is that ebook readers don't use a screen like a laptop, pc or iPod. They use electronic paper technology called E-Ink, which involves capsules containing black or white pigment being excited by electrical current. The result closely mimics real paper, so it can be read in full sunlight, just like a real book. Though many ebook readers boast other features like being able to download books off the web, play audiobooks or have newspapers, journals or blogs delivered straight to them, for me the main reason to buy one is because of the paper-like display.
I am, or was, a law student (I will be again in September) and a big part of that is reading cases, which in this modern age are all accessed online. The problem I had was that reading a very long judgement on a laptop screen was quite uncomfortable. My eyes got tired and though I wouldn't necessarily get a headache, it was general tiring and unenjoyable to be hunched over at my desk, squinting at text on an LCD screen for extended periods of time. When faced with reading several judgements, articles etc... I admit that I would end up skimming. The fact was that you didn't really need to read the whole of every case. For the most part you could just learn "Principle X is supported by Case Y" and maybe throw in a quote from a judge, which was easily gleaned from textbook or internet case summaries. This is quite sad in a way because by reading every case I think I would have had a better understanding of the law in general, would have read many more journal articles and would likely be a bit smarter than I am now.
You might say that I could have just printed the cases off. The problem is that if the average judgement is 20-40 pages long and every day you are shown 5-10 new cases, if you were going to print them all off you'd end up with 20,000+ A4 sheets in a single year. First you have to pay for them, second you have to find somewhere to keep them.
Because I'm starting the Bar Vocational Course or whatever they've decided to rename it in September, there'll be a lot more case reading to do and I'm confident that if I can download a load of judgements, articles and statutes to an electronic piece of paper as thick as a pencil, it will almost be like the old days where law students read cases in books, except I'll be able to do it anywhere, especially as the battery life of the readers is 1-2 weeks.
The cost of decent ebook readers is coming down to around £150 and whilst that seemed like quite a lot to me, I think it's actually worthwhile, if you're going to be doing a lot of reading. I haven't even mentioned reading real books.
Here's an example of what this E-ink looks like. Pretty much just like paper, right? If anyone has an ebook reader, please let me know what you think of it.
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