Electronic readers 'better than books' for older people

Elderly people should use e-readers or tablet computers rather than books because they place less strain on the eyes while reading, a study has found. 

Digital reading devices allow older people to read the same text more quickly and with less effort than printed pages, without affecting their understanding of the text, researchers said.

But when asked which device they preferred reading on, traditional books were twice as popular as electronic devices among older readers, backing up previous surveys.

The results suggest that despite digital book sales overtaking print in the UK and the US, readers are still more attached to the culture associated with books than the convenience of electronic devices.

Researchers from Johannes Gutenberg University in Mainz, Germany, tracked the eye movements and brain activity of 36 younger participants aged 21-34, and 21 older adults aged 60 and above as they read text from e-readers, tablet computers and printed pages.

Each participant was asked to read extracts from nine texts which ranged in difficulty from fiction extracts to academic texts, reading each one once on either a tablet, e-reader or printed page. 

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/science-news/9852996/Electronic-readers-better-than-books-for-older-people.html 

 

English literature's 50 key moments from Marlowe to JK Rowling

What have been the hinge points in the evolution of Anglo-American literature? Here's a provisional, partisan list:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/booksblog/2013/feb/04/english-literature-key-moments-jk-rowling 

Quiz: Famous Novels: Name the Author

http://quitzer.com/game/quiz:-famous-novels:-name-the-author

Depressing books could be just what the doctor ordered

Instead of 'mood-boosting books', imagine doctors handing out prescriptions for gloomy masterpieces by Samuel Beckett and Thomas Hardy. Martin Chilton looks at the appeal of 20 great depressing novels. 

Puddleglum is an unusually cheerful marsh-wiggle in Narnia, "altogether too full of bobance and bounce and high spirits". He is told sternly by other wiggles that he has to learn "that life isn't all fricasseed frogs and eel pie".

Would CS Lewis have passed a “cheerful test” for the new 'Books On Prescription Scheme'? The project, which will be rolled out across doctor's surgeries and libraries from May, means that patients suffering from panic attacks, depression, relationship problems and anxiety will be offered “mood-boosting books” on prescription, to be redeemed at the library.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/9847523/Depressing-books-could-be-just-what-the-doctor-ordered.html