Reading while walking

Unpredicted Consequences of the eBook Number 371: more people are reading as they walk along.

I say ‘more’. Actually I’ve seen two, in as many weeks. So this is a prediction rather than an observation. But it’s one I’m pretty confident about. It struck me as I watched the people in question — both 20-something women, both reading Kindles — that a single-page e-reader isn’t that much bigger than a large smartphone. It’s perfectly common as you walk along to check your emails and texts, or even surf the net — so why not read a book? In fact you can read books on your iPhone, making the transition from one habit to the other even easier. A traditional book requires two hands to hold, or certainly to turn its pages — but in this era of the electronic device, when that turn of the page is just a flick of the thumb, surely the combined read-and-walk will become more common?

It depends on the terrain, of course.