Friday, June 10, 2016

Another Quote on Deep Reading

From the Middle Ages until sometime after 1750, men read intensively. They had only a few books - the Bible, an almanac, a devotional work or two - and they read them over and over again, usually aloud and in groups, so that a narrow range of traditional literature became deeply impressed on their consciousness. By 1809 men were reading extensively. They read all kinds of material, especially periodicals and newspapers, and read it only once, and then raced on to the next item. 

- from the Gutenberg Elegies by Sven Birkerts
Posted by at
Labels: ,

1 comment:

Janie said...

Interesting quote, and accurate, too, from what I've read. Unfortunately, I fall into the "extensive" category, though I hardly read in a volume I'd consider extensive (of course, they didn't have Netflix to distract them from reading), and I believe I would be much better off if I *would* read more intensively. . . . Maybe after I finish reading all the books on my shelves, I will. :)

June 11, 2016 at 5:29 AM

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)