ENGL-601

Elizabeth Burow-Flak

Ludan Sun

    When I just got this book, I thought I was cheated by the seller because what I received was not a book but a DVD. Therefore, I was sure that the seller used a book cover and a DVD to pretend a book. Later I found I was wrong. It Is really a book that is different from others because it is a media book which should be read on the computer.

    TOC is a new kind of book that I have never seen in my learning experience. First, it is not a paper book, but a media book. Second, I can get more movable images through the book. TOC is written by Steve Tomasula. Tomasula states that “TOC is an interactive, multimedia epic about time: the invention of the second, the beating of a heart, and the story of humans connecting through time to each other and to the world.” There are many components in the book, such as visual novels, the assemblage of texts, films, music, photos, spoken words and so on. we can enjoy something that we cannot experience when we read a paper book.

    Do I like this book? Yes, I like this book, and I think the novels are very interesting. However, I do not like the way to read this book, especially I have to read the words through a lucid ball. My sight was limited by this lucid ball, which makes me feel uncomfortable to read the words. What is more, I would get lost in reading this book. Until now I was not sure whether I had finished reading all the novels or watching all the films. Maybe I still had the problem of how to read this media book.

    However, when I read this book, I found something is interesting. I could use coordinate to choose something I would like to read, which is new to me. For me, I like to reading a paper book rather than reading a media book, even though there are a lot of pictures, films in the media book because I can make notes in the books or review what I feel confused. However, I cannot do this in the media book. Meanwhile, I feel that it is difficult for me to remember the content in a media book because this book consists of too many pictures, novels and films, and I could hardly connect them together.

    TOC is really a special novel in my learning experience, maybe I would like to try more media books or maybe I will not; maybe it is the beginning of my reading media book experience, or maybe it is the end of my experience.