I write all over the pages of every book I read. It helps me have a conversation with the author and allows me to keep track of my thinking while I am reading. I would love to have a Web2.0 tool that allows me to highlight, underline, and take notes in the margins while reading online. Is there any such tool available? I just read through Alex Beam’s article I Screen, You Screen, We All Screen where he quotes Anne Mangen highlighting the differences of reading a traditional book compared to reading online. She says:
The feeling of literally being in touch with the text is lost when your actions – clicking with the mouse, pointing on touch screens, or scrolling with keys or on touch pads – take place at a distance from the digital text, which is, somehow, somewhere inside the computer, the e-book, or the mobile phone.
I hear ya Anne! If there is an online article or blog post that I really want to read deeply I will often print a hard copy so that I am able to write all over the paper. If I don’t print off the article I will often highlight a section of the text, as if I am copying and pasting, which gives me a focus during the online reading experience. It also gives me a specific purpose for using the mouse, it limits my scrolling, and seems to limit the distance between me and the digital text. It’s not perfect but it helps my brain.
