The box is the message: My spiffy green machine and why hardware counts in getting kids fired up about books

Last night I was deep in Kid Mode–my head resting on a pillow leaning on a closet door, while my addictive green machine, the XO-1 from One Laptop Per Child, sat on my belly.

The Manybooks.net site offering free books is now on a Jane Austen streak, but I wasn’t reading Pride and Prejudice, Persuasion or another novel; rather, something that would have been invisible to me but for e-books: Memoir of Jane Austen, written by her nephew, James Edward Austen-Leigh. The goal here wasn’t to turn myself into an Austen expert, which I’ll never be, but instead to find out a little more on Jane. Might that make me a better and much more enthusiastic reader of her fiction? You can’t escape Jane, who caught the fancy of The Power People of her era, at least toward the end of her life, and whose influence lingers among their counterparts today. Oh, and that’s not all. We know about plain Jane. But to her nephew she “was very attractive; her figure was rather tall and slender, her step light and firm, and her whole appearance expressive of health and animation.” Is Austen lust possible? You never know.

So how does something as prosaic as a green-and-white box fit in here? Because with a small-screened PDA or a low-resolution laptop. I doubt I’d have spent time with Memoir:

• Many paragraphs are long, not the best PDA reading but doable on the XO, with its seven-and-a-half inch screen—a great size for e-reading of illustrated works without detailed illustrations. For portability? Sure–I love PDAs.
• I can choose between the tablet and laptop modes depending on my mood. Actually a bit of variety is probably best for comfort. Makes me more likely to explore books I wouldn’t otherwise–just on a whim.
• The screen is super-sharp, perhaps the most salient aspect of the XO as I noted in my 5,500-word review.
• The holes in the handle are just right for the appropriate fingers to pass through, when I’m holding the XO.
• With the third-party FBReader installed, I can easily vary the size and style of the font. I can get a nice overview of those long paragraphs, then zoom in close up if I want to focus on individual sentences. This is a great feature for any reader, but I suspect would be especially handy for those with learning difficulties.

Except for the last feature, the above wrinkles came with the machine and I suspect are no accident. I know there’s a lot of fuss over Apple’s new thin laptop and its potential for E, but beyond the price, it just lacks the same combination of inviting, book-friendly qualities that the XO does.

This is why I remain committed not just to the idea of a well-stocked national digital library system (with fair pay for content providers), but also to the idea of encouraging use of appropriate hardware–the kind suited for hour after hour of book-reading and the accompanying sustained thought. If the box can look as spiffy as the XO, so much the better.

No, book reading isn’t only form of useful reading, as if:book‘s Ben Vershbow has correctly noted in his commentary on the latest literacy study from the National Endowment for the Arts. But it is a form that definitely has been on the wane in recent years, and the right mix of hardware and software would make it easier for teachers and parents to get kids hooked on books. Human side first, of course! The technology alone can’t work miracles.

Meanwhile for those who wonder if I’m putting the cart before the horse, in suggesting in a recent TeleRead post that Apple should do a lot more to promote book-reading among young people, I’d remind them of the prominent role that tech vendors play in setting America’s educational agenda. It shouldn’t be that way. But it is. I’d love to see Apple committed to the popularization of e-books–viewable on the screens so dear to young people–among students in K-12. Perhaps as some say, and as I’ve acknowledged from the start, Steve Jobs will soon be doing an Apple e-book tablet despite his current emphasis on the laptop and movie rentals. A little disinformation, especially his comment that “People don’t read any more”? I hope so, just as I hope that One Laptop Per Child will display a book-library icon prominently on the XO’s start up screen.

Words, whether by Jane Austen or Nora Roberts, count most of all. But first people must care to read them, and in this context, undeniably, especially when it comes to books, The Box Is The Message.

A few more Austen-related details: I’ll not let anyone dictate to me what I read, but at least here in the D.C. area, the Austen rage never dies, and as a writer I can’t ignore it. My wife succumbed long ago.

And the ed-vendor question: As for another little question I’ve raised in the above item, the tech vendors reach educators in many ways ranging from awards and fellowships to massive advertising in K-12-related publications. The cover article of the January issue The Journal: Transforming Education Through Technology is all about porn-searching software and whatever. An e-book article in this issue really wouldn’t hurt. Point I’m making is that the Journal is probably reflecting a mix of the priorities of advertisers and politicians, as opposed to true educational ones alone.