Weighty Matters
Just a quick comment, really.
I haven’t yet been able to get my hands on an Apple iPad (here are the reasons why I want one), but I have been surprised at comments from people I respect (like John Gruber of Daring Fireball) who say that they find the iPad a bit too heavy to hold while reading an e-book for extended periods.
Now, as I say, I haven’t handled one yet, and maybe it’s a bit too slick and slippy to hold. But come on, one and a half pounds isn’t heavy for a book. I went to my library and weighed a few hardback books.
Here’s the result:
| iPad | 1.5 lb |
| John Gillingham’s “The War of the Roses” | 1.5 lb |
| Barbara Tuchman’s “The March of Folly” | 2.0 lb |
| Susanna Clarke’s “Jonathan Strange & Mr Norell” | 3.0 lb |
I haven’t had any trouble at all reading the above physical books, though admittedly “Jonathan Strange” can start to get a little uncomfortable after a while. But it is twice the weight of an iPad.
It was good to find a book which weighs exactly the same as the iPad – allowed me to get a good feel for the heft of the device. “The War of the Roses” is lightweight for a hardback, perfectly comfortable to hold and read for hours at a time.
