Finally some sense about eReaders

Read David Lankes rant to eReader producers on the SLJ web site. It's perhaps the best, most sensible thing I've come across on the subject. Lankes doesn't get into wishing for multimedia or complaining about eBook prices or nostalgia for paper. He talks about the way we learn and how eReaders have the opportunity to facilitate that learning, an opportunity they are currently squandering. He suggests a host of note-taking, editing, organizing and social media features currently missing from pretty much all eReaders, and concludes:

The next evolution of the ereader should go beyond the artifacts of learning to engage the act of learning itself. Not textbook knowledge but what is derived through reading. We discover ourselves in the struggles of Holden Caulfield. We see the best of humanity in Atticus Finch. This isn’t about some romantic ideal around the love of reading, but a more fundamental need to understand. You want to change the world, give me an iPad or ereader that facilitates this; true learning happens when books and friends, writing and understanding intermingle in a rich soup of participation.