From Carlin Romano’s article “Will the Book Survive Generation Text?” in The Chronicle of Higher Education:
My own peculiar worry about Academe 2020, offered with less than 20/20 foresight, may seem less catastrophic: the death of the book as object of study, the disappearance of “whole” books as assigned reading. Does that count as a preposterous figment of extreme academe, or is it closer than we think?
I don’t mean the already overwrought debate over the crisis of the book as codex—the daily New York Times announcement that electronic readers stand primed to eliminate paper books. (This shift, of course, plays into the problem, since any shrewd publishing type can see how the paper book’s demise might make it easier to digitally trim, abridge, and repackage texts in more “appealing” forms than their benighted authors envisaged.) The issue isn’t the decline in book sales, though it, too, remains an element of the big picture. I am talking about the growing feeling among humanities professors—intuitive and anecdotal, shared over lunch like an embarrassing tale about a colleague—that for too many of today’s undergraduates, reading a whole book, from A to Z, feels like a marathon unfairly imposed on a jogger.
When I finished reading the article I felt the need to read only really long novels for the rest of my life.
When you get used to a routine that means most of your time every evening is spent doing homework with only a few minutes to read before bed and then there is suddenly no homework to do it sort of throws one for a loop. It took me awhile to figure out what to do with myself last night. But of course when it dawned on me that I can read, all was right with the world.
So I finished Mansfield Park and will let that sit in my brain another day or so before I write anything about it. This was book number 15 in Emily’s TBR Challenge. I have five and a half more to go:
- The half is Hermione Lee’s bio of Edith Wharton. I am planning on finishing it while I am on quarter break.
- The Wilderness Warrior: Theodore Roosevelt and the Crusade for America by Douglas Brinkley. This is as fat as the Wharton bio. I have serious doubts I will be able to finish it this year but I will try.
- A Book of Silence by Sara Maitland.
- Evil in Modern Thought by Susan Neiman.
- 2666 by Roberto Bolaño.
- A Human Eye by Adrienne Rich.
Not too bad. The year isn’t over yet, right?
TR is the cousin to the FDR who overlooks my work, but it’s hard to find a more fascinating President, personally or intellectually, than either of them.
Doesn’t “deep reading” also take place in a completely different location in the brain than scanning text messages and IM’s?
Slow is harder, but better, than fast.
I hate it when people say it’s too hard to read a whole book.
I am consoled by this whole digital-vs-paper thing by thinking of alllllll the paper books there are in this world that are still available to be read. Long Live Paper! (or sustainable substitute) Nothing like holding a book in your hand. I’m happy to consume reading material in any format, but I do love books best.
I have about three books going right now, and have finished one but not blogged it yet — just too busy!!!
Oh do read 2666, I’d like to know what you think of it. I’m listening to it right now, about 1/3 in. I have no idea why but I like it.
Thanks for sharing the article Stefanie- very thought provoking. And I can’t wait to hear your thoughts on Mansfield Park, it’s one of my favorite books
Good luck with the rest of the challenge, the year isn’t over!
Shelley, TR and FDR were both fascinating men. I am looking forward to the bio.
Daphne, judging from my personal book stockpile, the paper book could disappear tomorrow and I’d be fine for the remainder of my life. However, I don’t want the paper book to disappear and I think teachers who play into the idea that students can’t or won’t read a whole book are doing us all a disservice.
Sylvia, I really want to read 2666 so I will get to it, hopefully soon. Are you listening to it in English or Spanish?
Lua, it makes me nervous when someone says the book I just finished and will soon be writing about is one of their favorites. I only hope I can manage to do it a little justice. Glad you enjoyed the article!
Ha! I’m listening in English. It’s way beyond me in Spanish. I really must work on that…
Unfortunately I’ve found the quote to be quite true in the case of my son. He’s 16 and it seems like people that age don’t sit and read a whole book anymore. They are too used to having bite-sized pieces of information from the internet. I keep hoping he will come back to reading books when he’s a bit older.
I worry, too, when I walk out into the library and see so few students reading what seems to be novels compared to how many have their laptops open and notice how many are watching videos or are on their Facebook page! I think you’re going to breeze through those last five books–and I can’t wait to hear more about the Edith Wharton bio!
While I can understand the need to read only specific sections of a book (for study purposes), I can’t imagine ever doing that for personal reading. It just doesn’t compute in my tiny brain at all. I’m starting to wonder if the internet and all those personal reading gadgets (phones, iPads, e-book readers, etc.) are going to change reading habits permanently, and for the worse. Will people have the necessary attention span any longer to read a complete, or complex, book in its entirety? I doubt it.
I love the experience of reading long books – and watching long movies, even – because I get an deeper understanding for a subject or story that way. I’m steadily making my way through the new George Washington bio that is going to be publised some time in October – 823 pages of jam-packed detail about the man. I never imagined we even knew that much about Washington; it’s a fascinating read. What a shame that so many people will miss out on the experience of living with George Washington for a few weeks.
I remember in high school English reading an essay by a writer saying why he believed short stories would supplant novels. This was in the 1980s so pre-internet. He gave a lot of convincing arguments such as the ‘fact’ that people were now more time poor, and so would be more inclined to read something shorter. When I read it the arguments seemed rather convincing. But the truth is that in any bookshop or library the novels vastly outnumber the short story collections. So I think this is a new variation of the same old argument.
I think the book, as an object, will never be lost. Electronic readers only offer comfortable portability. Printed books offer tangible beauty
Kathleen, say it isn’t so! Hopefully it is just a phase. Cross fingers.
Danielle, I know what you mean about walking through the library and seeing students playing games or on Facebook. Even in the law school it’s like that.
Sam, that’s a nice chnukster of a bio! I suspect the people who like to read books will read long books no matter what format they are in. The people for whom reading is unimportant who read maybe one or two books a year, or worse, none, will likely be the ones who end up reading only pieces here and there. What is really a shame is if teachers fall into the assumption that kids don’t have long enough attention spans and therefore assign only parts of books instead of the whole text for school. That will really speed up cultural impoverishment.
Ed, I hope you are right about that!
Mark, I so agree with you on that!
Nice job on the challenge! I will keep assigning whole books in my classes, so I guess I’m doing my part to avert the coming reading apocalypse, but still, articles like that seem pretty ominous. I guess it’s even more important that I give my students the opportunity to read a lot, particularly those who aren’t English majors or particularly interested in reading.
Oh that quote is scary! I understand not particularly wanting to read assigned novels when you’d rather be reading something else, but feeling put out at having to read a whole book? There are some things I just don’t understand no matter how I try and even though lots of my friends don’t read lots. I mean I would probably make it through the world without books, but it would be a much less pleasurable experience.
You’re doing so well with the TBR challenge by the way. I need to get my act into gear on that.