Or not . . .
Good article in the New York Times about this. I’ve written about this before, but I continue to think/worry about this. The kind of sustained attention/concentration you need to read a book–to really lose yourself–is so different from the kind of jazzed-up, juiced-up flitting around that’s encouraged in most digital realms, from newspapers with embedded hypertext links to video games that don’t necessarily follow linear narratives (in fact, most don’t). I know that it’s only a matter of time before someone comes up with an e-book with embedded hypertext links, and yes, Garth Nix has done the equivalent in novel form (and well, I might add). But there is as much entertainment in deep thought and concentration–more so, I would suggest–than in simply getting a jolt. Sitting and thinking and reading and losing yourself is DOING something just as valuable and rewarding as clicking a link or blasting a bad guy. Anyone who’s gotten so deeply lost in a book that coming back to reality is a little like coming down from the clouds knows exactly what I’m talking about.
