Sometimes it’s funny how things work out. I was all ready to write a blog post about e-book readers and Shabbos based on an article (special thanks to Marci who pointed this article out) from The Atlantic’s web site. Then over Shabbos I was having a discussion about ebook readers and the big question was “What do you do about reading on Shabbos?”. Finally, this morning I found this article in my google reader about how Artscroll, the 800 pound gorilla of the Jewish publishing world, is now starting to get their content ready for digital publication.
I agree with Artscroll that the printed book isn’t going anywhere because of Shabbos and the fact that you can’t use an ebook reader on the day of rest. The interesting suggestion around that is the suggestion of having a special “Shabbos ebook reader” which will turn on at specific times and turn the pages at specific intervals. I’m not sure if I’d go for a product like that since my mind tends to wander while I’m reading and there would be no way for me to go back and see what pages passed me by.
On a completely different topic, I think that it’s awesome that there will shortly be digital editions of the Talmud for sale. That will make my studying a lot easier. It will be interesting to see exactly how Artscroll will go about doing this? Will it just be the English translation side of things or will it also be the “original” page of the Talmud. My bet is on the just the translation but time will tell.
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