From: "Jim O'Donnell" <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Sun, 30 Nov 2014 16:11:05 -0500

Back to my old haunts, here's today's report on the progress of e-reading:

There were about 250 people on the train, quite full for Thanksgiving.
I should have said years ago doing this that I always measure between
Metropark and Philadelphia.

114 people were engaged with electronic devices -- laptops, tablets,
readers, smartphones.  I can't count on three hands at once, so I'm
only approximating when I say that 30-50% of the devices in use were
smartphones.

37 people were engaged with paper materials of some kind or other, of
whom 17 were holding actual paper codex books.  (Other paper:
newspaper, magazines, school notebooks).  One of them was the first
person I have ever seen after many years of looking to be reading a
volume of Greek literature with the Greek text visible -- a Loeb
Classical Library volume of Aelian, a minor figure and distinctly an
advanced taste.  (A few weeks ago I did see a gentleman of mature
years, who proved on investigation to be a person of mature wealth and
family lineage, reviewing the basics of ancient Greek in the classic
textbook of Chase and Phillips, which he first used in prep school
about 60 years ago.  Reading Aelian is a large step beyond that:
enjoyable, without a question, inasmuch as his works are compilations
of anecdotes and lore of quite dubious value.)

I was, um, er, watching an Inspector Montalbano video on my iPad . . .

Jim O'Donnell