the iron self-discipline of a monk

Now, I love Cory Doctorow as much as ― no, more than ― the next guy. Don't get me started, lest I count the ways. The guy is just producing bushels of awesomesauce on a daily basis, and if he sold it on the street he could have a corner market. But guess what: he gives it away for free, which means even over here in the Second World, I can partake of the same quotidian helps of genius that everyone else gets.

But he's (probably) not 100% right about everything. I don't quite base my life on all his teachings, as Bart Simpson famously once said about Krusty. About copyright law, technology, the future, art, etc.: yep, I'm his evangelist. But there are some vibes concerning religion and philosophy that I've picked up on that I'm not entirely comfortable with. (Don't know if he's Jewish. This would seem to indicate that he is. Or not. To confuse matters, he had the poem "Jabberwocky" read at his wedding.)


Anyway, last weekend he dropped a five-part ResonanceFM interview into his podcast feed. Great stuff overall, but when asked about the future of ebook reading devices and when something like the Kindle will become more popular outside the publishing industry, Cory said something that I'm having a hard time believing he actually meant.

...For one thing it's going to have to be a lot cheaper. And I don't think it's going to get cheaper because of fundamental reductions in the cost of the materials. I think it'll get cheaper only in scale. And reading isn't widespread enough to reach that scale. And so what you'd have to do to bring that scale up, I think, would be to introduce other features, right? Like a Kindle that could also be a great iPod and a great Nintendo DS and a great phone, at that price point, would make a lot more sense.

As soon as it does all that stuff, I don't think that it'll be very good for reading because you think about ― every time you hit a paragraph that your eyes slightly glaze over on, it'll be, ‘I wonder if there's anything in my e-mail...’. Which is why no one reads books off-screen. You need the iron self-discipline of a monk to accomplish it.

Does he mean that nobody reads books on paper? That would hardly make sense, but it would seem to be the meaning of the word 'off-screen'.

It seems a bit more probable that he meant 'off the screen', i.e. while sitting at a computer, paging through a PDF, for example. But still: really? Even with all the distractions, no one can get through a book this way?

Personally, I believe ebooks are our biggest hope for the future availability of non-Hebrew literature here in Israel. The market just doesn't support Barnes & Nobles or Borders and the likes, to my great dismay. We can order from abroad (England seems to be a popular choice) or try our luck at many second-hand shops such as these. While they may have a big selection, they are not suited for the ongoing production of all books. And we deserve no less than that. Getting there is going to require a mentality of abundance, which you should read about in this article by Chris Anderson.

...Plus the capability, not to mention the iron self-discipline, to read books off of a screen.

[Update: the Jewish question is answered, for the record.]