The Death, and Life, of Reading Have Been Greatly Exaggerated (2016)

Re:The Death, and Life, of Reading Have Been Greatly Exagger... by asdfman123 on Tuesday July 31, 2018 @10:24AM (#17653369)

The author seems to miss that there are people like me -- internet addicts who don't read much anymore. I was born in the mid-80s and throughout most of my youth the only options were really vapid TV like reruns of Friends, very limited use internet, or books. For the most part, I chose books.

I would read constantly. Fiction, nonfiction, books on science, books on history, books on literature, you name it. I read my older brother's honors English books sitting around.

These days the internet is far more attractive and interesting than anything else going on, and I can scratch my itch to read by skimming articles on news aggregators without really retaining anything.

Articles about the "death of reading" are about people like me who have trouble unplugging to read. There are still some people who do read books, so it's not completely dead. But it is kind of sad for people like me who miss reading.

(I'm actually doing much better these days, though, and at least right now I'm getting some good reading done as I'm hooked on a series.)

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:The Death, and Life, of Reading Have Been Greatly Exagger... by dalbasal on Tuesday July 31, 2018 @12:25PM (#17654522)

That's a certain death too. I'm in the same boat. Reading a book has gone from guilty pleasure to the "I really need to do more reading" chore.

People still like Shakespeare. But, it's not a guilty pleasure anymore. Its something you do to "better yourself." You might call it a bourgeoisie pursuit.

A lot of art looks like this when it retires. It moves up the class ladder where it is maintained for posterity.

[ Parent | on HN ]