Reading on the run

Chicago Tribune: One hardcover English translation of Leo Tolstoy’s “War and Peace” has a list price of $37, weighs 3.8 pounds, and runs a staggering 1,296 pages long. It is, in every sense of the word, a literary heavyweight.

But publishers are once again trying to make it easier to dive into such a long book. Past efforts to create widely popular electronic formats for books — the term of art is “e-books” — haven’t succeeded. Now those in the business of books are yet again experimenting with technology to lighten the load of readers on the go.

Amazon recently introduced the Kindle, a handy 10.3 ounce paperback-size electronic tablet on which you can wirelessly download books, newspapers and magazines. Publishers are making deals that will allow you to download their books to your cell phone.

You might be tempted to scoff. Books on phones? Ridiculous. Even on a gloriously multi-pixel smart-phone screen, “War and Peace” is bound to feel, well, small, its epic breadth figuratively as well as literally shrunken.

Then again, so is much of our entertainment these days. We watch most of our movies not on big theater screens, but on home televisions. We consume music not at album length, but song by song, with all of our favorite artists queued up on our miniature devices.

Electronic lure

That means people now see movies they otherwise wouldn’t, and hear beloved recordings any time they wish. What if expanding the status quo by perfecting e-books similarly sustains the book business by ... luring more people to read?

Certain books actually translate better to, and are better consumed on, phones than are traditional books. Being able to consult cookbooks on our phones in Aisle 5 might make shopping for dinner ingredients quicker and easier. Much as cramming a bulky travel guide onto a slim phone surely would lighten the load on the backs of weary tourists.

In Japan, commuters consume graphic novels — think elaborate comic books — and novellas on their cell phones.

This is the time, it seems, for the e-book.

But Tolstoy? We will still prefer him in hardcover. Turn with us now to page 1,187.

Don’t tell Tolstoy.