Can You Read Me?

摘要

They're at it again-the doom-criers who assert that reading is disappearing-or at least the right kind of reading. Digital content? Sorry; that's not really reading. In 2004, the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) produced "Reading at Risk," a report asserting that reading was declining. The report stated reading itself was at risk and projected that "literary reading as a leisure activity will virtually disappear in half a century." Although that report resulted in lots of alarmed editorials, a number of observers read the report carefully, did independent analysis of the source material, and came to different conclusions. I wrote about it in the August 2004 Cites & Insights, concluding: "The sky has not fallen. I sincerely doubt that America will be a nation of aliterates in 50 years."