Professor John E. Jackson is the Naval War College’s manager for the Navy Professional Reading Program.
For most of recorded history, the term “reading” has referred to the process of decoding marks inscribed on stone or clay tablets, papyrus, linen, or paper in order to extract the knowledge the writer was attempting to share. The link between thought, speech, and the written word was identified by the Greek philosopher Aristotle, who said, “Spoken words are the symbols of mental experience, and written words are the symbols of spoken words.” Many pages of writing bound together into book format have been the most ubiquitous and longest-lasting form of communication for the past thousand years. Today, however, emerging technology is providing other alternatives. While the heart of the Navy Professional Reading Program (NPRP) is a library of sixty printed and bound books that have been distributed widely throughout the fleet, other options are also available for sailors who want to participate in the program.
Audiobooks. In Aristotle’s day, “spoken words” were exchanged during one-to-one conversations or within small groups who sat enthralled as orators and storytellers conveyed information through the oral tradition. The ability to record and replay the human voice enabled many more people to share in a common experience. The modern audiobook utilizes voice actors (or the authors themselves) to present their content in a highly dramatic fashion. These audiobooks are particularly appealing to the visually impaired and to individuals who can listen to books while on travel. Admiral Michael Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, has expressed a fondness for listening to audiobooks during his seemingly endless travels. Many of the titles in the NPRP library are available on prerecorded audio tapes and compact disks (which can be purchased in the Navy Exchange or commercial bookstores) or can be downloaded into MP3 players and iPods. At least twenty-two titles are currently available at no charge to sailors who access the Navy Knowledge Online (NKO) website, at www.nko.navy.mil .
E-Books. Over the past five years, many high-tech companies have been working to create efficient electronic devices capable of downloading and displaying the written word. Probably best known is the Kindle, from Web giant Amazon, which will download books in less than sixty seconds from virtually anywhere, using its “Whispernet” or via a “Wi-Fi” hot-spot. The Kindle will hold as many as 1,500 books in its memory, and hundreds of thousands of titles are available, many at no charge. In July 2010, Amazon announced that for the first time it had sold more e-books during the month than it had sold hard-back books! Amazon believes that e-book sales will soon eclipse paperback sales as well. The eReader (from Sony Corporation) and the Nook (from Barnes and Noble) are also competing for shares of the e-book market. The latest, and one of the most formidable, competitors, is the iPad (from Apple), which performs not only as a book reader but also as a video player, Web-surfing device, and music player. Additionally, many “smartphones” can also be used to read e-content, although their smaller screens make extended reading difficult. As with audiobooks, over a dozen e-book versions of NPRP titles (and thousands of other books) are available for free download on Navy Knowledge Online (NKO), through the courtesy of the Navy General Library Program.
There are a number of pros and cons to e-books. Some readers simply miss the feel and weight of a bound book in their hands. Printed books can be read, underlined, and shared with friends and family members, and a collection of beautifully bound books can create a warm and inviting personal library. On the other hand, hundreds of e-books can be carried in one hand, and new titles are available in a matter of minutes. e-books are often less expensive than printed books, and they are more ecologically friendly, since no trees are felled to make the paper, no fuel is burned moving the books from printer to bookstore to consumer, and no space is taken up in the landfill when the books are no longer needed.
Observers believe that the trend will be for e-book sales to continue to grow, while sales of printed books will decline, but the ultimate outcome of this battle is unclear. No one believes that the day of the printed book is numbered, as there will likely always be readers who reject the lure of e-book technology. The Navy Professional Reading Program promotes reading in all formats, as well as listening to audiobooks. The real payback from reading is the knowledge and increased worldview one gets from all of the books in the NPRP library. We encourage you to experiment with all the reading options, to borrow books from your command library, to download them for free on NKO, or to purchase them in print of electronic versions for your professional library. Any way you go, you will be a better sailor and better citizen for your efforts.
JOHN E. JACKSON