Oscar Wilde - On The i-phone

Reading 'The picture of Dorian Gray' by Oscar Wilde turned out to be a surprisingly useful in many ways. Firstly for my SOT essay and the concept I am developing of becoming-book. However I initially only got Dorian Gray as it was free on the kindle app on my i-phone. I got it as an experiment to see how reading on my phone would work and wether I could read a whole book on it.

As it turns out yes I did read the entire book on my i-phone but it wasn't a smooth experience. It was great for occasions when I stranded somewhere (usually waiting for some form of public transport) and I needed entertaining for an hour. But as it operated as a touch screen turning the page fast became irritating. Particularly as sat on a very cold platform my finger quickly became an icicle as I could not turn the page with a glove on! Also the small size of the screen meant that turning the page was frequently necessary, and as the the screen would go dark if you didn't read the page fast enough it lead to a very hands on experience. I also found the way in which you hold it to read was quite difficult, it almost always required two hands. Unlike a book you couldn't prop it up on your knee or table as its smaller size makes it illegible on a flat surface and too small to balance on a knee. Of course as your other hand is almost constantly engaged in turning the page this leads to rather awkward reading positions. Therefore shorter reading sessions as you end up rather cramped. The other obvious problem with reading on an i-phone is that it's a light source. This leaves you with strained eyes and a blossoming headache after a while. The other problem with it being a light source is that it saps the battery very quickly. So even if you can put up with the other irritations of reading it the phone rapidly runs out of battery.

However despite all of these problems I did manage to read the whole book. The convenience of it always being on me outweighing the other problems. Though I think that the excellent writing of Oscar Wilde was undoubtedly a factor. As it is unusual for me to not have a book with me and on occasions I would leave the other book behind in favour of the i-phone. But ultimately given the option to read 'The Picture of Dorian Gray' in a paperback or on an i-phone the paperback would definitely still come out the winner.