The state of reading appears to be evermore convoluted. Studies have consistently shown the dramatic decline in literacy and reading comprehension over the last few year; but even with full readerly capacity, nobody appears to have a desire to read. Where's the passion? The maniacal, insatiable need?
A Guardian article surmised that the decline in reading correlates with an increase in online reading. Of course, if you look at how we read online, and the focus of online writing (to simplify, streamline and enhance--through multimedia)--such an evolution still doesn't necessarily represent the salvation of books and literature, particularly as academic institutions turn to digital/multimedia/online forms of teaching/learning in ever-increasing numbers.
In a Reuters article, Alex Dobuzinskis writes, "Digital textbooks are expected to grow to 4 percent of overall sales this year from under 3 percent, rising to 11 percent by 2013." Since "74 percent of students still preferred physical texts," publishers appear to be targeting younger readers. Get 'em young, get 'em used to the idea of digital only, and you've got converts for live, right?
How about putting more books into the hands of young kids? Organizations like First Book strive to bring books to needy kids, but it also reminds us of some of the complexities of the reading dilemma. With lots of reasons why we don't read, we'd like to think that we could solve the problem--quick, easy & effective. But technology can complicate things. We want to reverse the troubling decline in reading... Why not start by doing more of what we do right? Read more to kids. Put more books into the hands of kids! And, then continue to inspire reading through all ages. Bridge the gap. Online reading should still brings us back to our initial passion for books!
Comments
Amen! I couldn’t agree more. Thank you for your column!
A decline in literacy is to be deplored not least because you need to be literate to access new media. The shift in academic textbooks to digital platforms though does make sense. It is much easier to amend a Kindle book for example (only 24 hours to republish and no cost of reprinting) than a physical book which means textbooks can much more easily be kept up to date. Also the readers store hundreds of books so students can carry a whole library around with them easily. When I was young we had to carry bags full of books which was deemed bad for our physical development and was back-breaking. In recent research I have done I have also been impressed by the sheer volume of academic information that can now be easily accessed via a lap-top. It gives any student anywhere the equivalent of a university library in their own room. That can’t be bad.
I love my kindle but I still turn to treebooks as well. At the present time not everything is available in digital format so you do still need a good old traditional book. Of course with a book you don’t have to re-charge it to carry on reading, and something I have found – it is easier to find a page with a good old treebook than it currently is with an e-reader. If I want to find a book on my kindle it is actually much quicker to go through the index than it is to use the search facility – it currently takes too long. And I find that I can find a specific place quicker by flicking through a book than using an e-reader.
Lets also face the fact that we are also talking about a device that most people don’t own throughout the world, and remember that a vast majority of people don’t have internet access either. A book can easily be used by these people. With textbooks I find that unless you are using a tablet device or larger then you have to flick between pictures/ diagrams and the text relevant to them, whereas with a normal textbook you have it on the same page.
Both can be handy and to be honest I can’t really see a treebook suddenly disappearing. Information can be updated and corrections made quickly by sending updates to kindles, websites, etc., but there is also a downside to this. I have already seen one company change it’s history to a degree, claiming it was at the forefront of some research, when in fact their employee who came up with the idea was poohed poohed by them at the time, and they tried to distance themselves from his ideas. It makes you think of Orwell’s 1984 and Big Brother; the technology is now here to make things easier, but also manipulate things leading to false impressions.