ABSTRACT
Ideas have their own ecological roots. Over the Christmas of 1998, I played with my newly purchased electronic book, trying out different kinds of reading. I discovered I had a strong preference for using my fingers rather than the stylus to manoeuvre as many of the controlling operations as possible. The e-book was easy to hold, but as soon as I switched to a ‘hands-on’ mode, using both hands to make contact with the print as I read, I felt my comfort level rise immediately – enough that I noticed it consciously as well as unconsciously and began to wonder about the role of the hands in reading.
