Secret Lives of Readers


Books reveal themselves. Whether they exist as print or pixels, they can be read and examined and made to spill their secrets. Readers are far more elusive. They leave traces—a note in the margin, a stain on the binding—but those hints of human handling tell us only so much. The experience of reading vanishes with the reader.  How do we recover the reading experiences of the past? Lately scholars have stepped up the hunt for evidence of how people over time have interacted with books, newspapers, and other printed material.

The Digital World Demands a New Mode of Reading

This is interesting!  Professor says that he reads more now due technology.
"...The owner of a Kindle and an iPad, Mr. Jacobs [ an English professor from Wheaton College]  feels he reads more now because of technology, not in spite of it. "Some of that, I think, is Kindles and iPads allowing me to have so much to read at my fingertips," he says. "Pre e-reading, I watched more TV because if there wasn't something I wanted to read near to hand, I would just pick up the remote...."

I am inclined to agree with him  -  the Internet has opened up so many avenues for discovery and exploration which were not available to us before - Eileen.

As we are librarians and in the business of reading, is it safe to assume that we all do read?

http://mg.co.za/article/2012-07-11-the-reading-nation