Comments on: Reading Is Dead

By: Kathryn

Kathryn — Mon, 12 Sep 2011 14:33:03 +0000

Brilliant!

I truly enjoyed your message and the style with which you conveyed it.

Personally, I don’t think reading will ever die, because someone must write, and read, the original text that may eventually flow into the ears of those who enjoy the auditory method of acquiring information.

Will that create a cast system: those who can read and those who can’t? Will that mean that those who can read will have a unique marketable skill and enjoy a higher earning capacity than those who can’t? hmmm. I suppose the possibility of a cast system means that ensuring my children can read, and read well, is a worthy goal, indeed.

As a mother of three under 11, of which one child is challenged with a learning disability, I spend a great deal of time, effort, and energy ensuring that my children can read. My mantra: reading is power. With the afore mentioned possibility of a reading cast system, would it follow that if reading is power, and money is power, that reading is money? Questions we shall debate at the dinner table tonight.

You’ve managed to not only provide a moment of enjoyment, but set my mind a whirling and inspired me to post this response.

Well done!

By: Irene

Irene — Wed, 31 Aug 2011 04:29:20 +0000

Agreeing with Chris’ points and adding that this reader misses underlining her favorite passages in an audiobook, to glance back upon someday for review, much as she loves such CDs for enlivening car travel.

Keep up the thoughtful posts, Rich!

By: Karina Casebolt

Karina Casebolt — Tue, 30 Aug 2011 01:37:33 +0000

I found your article to be philosophically intriguing, Rich. Relevant issues in this day and age! I have experienced practically identical scenarios with my offspring, and your article prompted me to reflect on this. Although I am aware of how infrequently my daughters (ages 18 & 21) spend reading literature, I still maintain hope for the intimacy of the (book) reading experience – for now. Perhaps we are starting to sound like our grandparents…”I remember when…reading involved books…”

My maternal grandmother (my last living grandparent) was born in 1916. When I think of all the inventions and developments she has witnessed, it is truly staggering….

By: Michelle

Michelle — Mon, 29 Aug 2011 21:38:57 +0000

Reading isn’t dead. Reading will never be dead either, not completely, because not everyone is wired. And because nothing can ever replace the tactile feel and smell and weight of a book in one’s hands. For those who think their Kindle is da bomb, I have two words: spa pool. And it’s kinda hard to balance on an elliptical trainer. (That’s where I get most of my reading done these days, at the gym. Reading is such a pleasure it actually motivates me to exercise. That’s some motivation!)

By: Larry Kunz

Larry Kunz — Mon, 29 Aug 2011 21:34:08 +0000

Good article, Rich.

In his latest Alertbox, Jakob Nielsen pointed out that old technologies typically aren’t completely eclipsed by new technologies. TV was invented, but we still kept radio. SmartPhones were invented, but we still have mainframe and desktop computers.

Jakob’s point isn’t true 100 percent of the time. (He acknowledges that there are no more town criers. He might’ve also mentioned telegrams and — soon — faxes.) Still, it holds true often enough that we probably don’t have to worry about the death of reading in our lifetimes.

Still….In a hundred years, if the act of reading continues to be devalued in our culture, it’s likely that fewer people will know how to read in anything but the most cursory way. Our children’s children will live in a world that has, excuse the cliche, the attention span of a gnat. And I wonder what that’s going to mean for our culture.

By: Christopher Burd

Christopher Burd — Mon, 29 Aug 2011 21:21:08 +0000

Call me a pro-read reactionary, but I think that (most of the time) traditional reading is superior to consuming audio or video. Audio and video are very linear: you start at time 00:00, you finish at time 05:00 (or 15:00, or 120:00, whatever). You can skip sections, but you don’t know what your skipping over. Want to roll back to the speaker’s previous point? You can do it, but it’s cumbersome. Want to compare two points from different sections? Again, possible but cumbersome.

Reading traditional texts, the eye can skim, pause to consider, re-read to clarify or critique, skip back to compare – all with almost the agility of thought itself.

OK, that’s a bit poetic, maybe; but reading – concentrated, immersive reading, like with books – is a poetic thing.

By: Bryan

Bryan — Mon, 29 Aug 2011 20:45:10 +0000

Not buying it. With my Sony Reader I am reading a LOT more than I used to. Also, the examples of bookstores has more to do, imo, business changes than reading patterns. All brick and mortar retail is getting hammered. And more space to Nook? That represents change in reading venue, not end of reading.