iTunes shows how it’s done. An extensive catalogue of music tracks, games, books and of course Apps is available to users. Anyone who has stored his or her credit card data obtains the desired products in seconds. This speed is sometimes even consolation for the fact that books are linked with exasperating DRM editions that only cause hassle. Suppliers of audio books give iTunes credit that competitors like audible.de (from Amazon) may well make similar promises, but they load their service with prohibitive costs. iTunes is almost fair as regards its costs for suppliers, so they say.

Summary
Used in item listings and search results.
Trapped in its own algorithms Google increasingly turns up exactly what we were expecting anyway. To put it provocatively: Google manages its own knowledge, and anything beyond this goes undiscovered. To make it more aggravating, this knowledge often comes with lists of lists of lists, but no real content.

There’s something magic about reading. Concentrated reading expands the world of experience and opens up fields of perception that in reality remain closed. Readers experience more than a single life has to offer, or in the words of Henri Michaux, “Who in his or her entire life even had just ten seconds as a tiger?” Readers switch off from their environment and devote themselves fully to reading, as Paul Verlaine summarized it in wordplay, “Tout de même on se livre.” It never ceases to amaze how many readers on buses and trains brave the public tumult in this way.

Swiss citizens recently voted about new regulations for their radio and television licence fees. The result was an extremely close vote for a licence fee that, similar to the German model, is not based on usage. All households must pay the licence fee and now all companies and businesses as well. The new rules were highly controversial and they will be until further notice. But opinions are divided on the source of the malaise. Some people are irritated by the fee’s nationwide coverage, while others are annoyed about programme content.

Der Wille ist stark, allein die Zeit ist kurz. Wer kann schon alles lesen, was er oder sie lesen möchte! Eine neue Technik verspricht nun Rettung: Spritz „Spritz’s mission is to change the way people read and make communication faster, easier, and more effective.“ Nichts weniger als das! Auf der Webseite lässt sich gleich erproben, was unter der neuen Lese-Methode zu verstehen ist.

In seinen Frankfurter Poetikvorlesungen “Der Leser. Das Erzählen” (1982) zeichnet Peter Bichsel ein verführerisches Bild des Lesers. Lesende sind subversiv, lautet die Quintessenz, weil sie sich von der Konsumwelt abwenden und eigensinnig in Welten der eigenen Leseerfahrung eintauchen. Lesende sind sich im Moment der Lektüre selbst genug. Folgt man diesem Bichselschen Gedanken, so ist das Lesen eine geradezu asoziale Tätigkeit. Allein, ist das die ganze Wahrheit?