The Difference Between Reading a Novel and Reading Hypertext (one of them, anyway)

The differences between reading a novel and reading hypertext are vast. I won't go into most of them here. That's for another page. But we can discuss price. Hypertext requires access to a computer. Yes, you can go to your local library and perhaps they have a computer you can use. But there's a real problem here. You buy hypertext on a disk. Can you, say, go to the beach with that disk and read it? Do you have a laptop? Do you want to bring it to the beach?

(The beach is very sandy)

This is silly. But it is a problem. As technology stands today, hypertext is limited to those with computers, and it is often limited to a specific room or specific location. No cozy chair to curl up on, no reading in bed. That's a problem. But that will change.

Unfortunately, what won't change is price. Computers cost a lot of money, and no matter what they tell you, the prices are not coming down. Computer prices are not coming down; rather, obsolete equipment prices are coming down. You buy what people are buying, you pay a lot. That doesn't change. It hasn't yet, and it won't. This is a problem.