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the complete review - technology / reading

Words Onscreen

by
Naomi S. Baron

general information | review summaries | our review | links | about the author

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Our Assessment:

B : decent overview and starting point in print and/vs. digital reading debate, though too awash with the anecdotal

See our review for fuller assessment.

  From the Reviews:

• "Baron’s breezy prose -- written in brief, pithy sections, a structure that owes much to online conventions -- packs much erudition into a lucid, engaging style. Among the many death-of-the-book jeremiads, her case for the ongoing relevance of the printed page stands out for its clarity and common sense." - Publishers Weekly
  
  
• "With short, choppy chapters and sub-chapters, this reads more like an internal academic document than a fully realised argument, and when it becomes polemical it strays into mere hectoring. Yet this does begin a proper debate about the future of reading, even if reading it is chore-ish." - Stuart Kelly, The Scotsman
  
  
• "The book is an engaging history of reading as well as a provocative argument about its future. The author tells many interesting stories about the rise of book reviews, book clubs and magazines. (...) Meanwhile, her worries are somewhat undercut by her own conscientious attention to historical context." - Steven Poole, Wall Street Journal

Please note that these ratings solely represent the complete review's biased interpretation and subjective opinion of the actual reviews and do not claim to accurately reflect or represent the views of the reviewers. Similarly the illustrative quotes chosen here are merely those the complete review subjectively believes represent the tenor and judgment of the review as a whole. We acknowledge (and remind and warn you) that they may, in fact, be entirely unrepresentative of the actual reviews by any other measure.

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The complete review's Review:

       Words Onscreen is a fairly wide-ranging look at the differences between reading in print- -- and especially book- -- form, and reading in digital form (i.e. on screens).
       With the rapid spread in recent years of 'e-reading', on dedicated e-readers as well as tablets, as well as the already more entrenched forms of screen-reading -- browsing the internet, texting and messaging, etc. -- the question naturally arises whether we are seeing a inexorable wholesale shift to digital reading, as well as the consequences (in terms of comprehending and working with what we read, for example), and what -- if any -- role print will play in the future. Baron admits that for her purposes -- and, as an academic, she reads a great deal -- her preference is almost always print -- indeed, that she can barely stand reading any longer texts or a novel in digital form. She realizes, however, that she was formed by print -- born in 1946, the digital revolution came well into her life and career -- and therefore closely considers whether younger generations, raised entirely in a digital-accessible environment, might not see and react to things differently.
       Baron considers all aspects of reading, including the evolution of widespread reading -- the spread of literacy, and the changes in what material was read and in what form(at)s. While her focus is on English-language reading -- taking, for example, Richardson's Pamela, "the first English novel", as the starting point for a consideration of the rise and spread of the genre -- she does at least point to other writing/reading systems (in which texts are read right to left, or are ideogram-based, such as Chinese), and suggests some of the consequences of these different ways of reading.
       Baron considers the differences between intensive and extensive reading -- a shifting line, beginning with the early days of reading when relatively few (and mainly religious texts) were available, and these were read intensively, while with the advent of the printing press, and then the mass-production of novels, magazines, and newspapers, more casual and extensive reading became possible. The internet, of course, marks an entirely new level of extensive possibilities -- but, as she notes, tends also towards shallow reading: focusing on shorter texts, scanning rather than comprehensively reading them, etc.
       From the tactile sensations of book-reading to the environmental trade-offs of print versus digital, Baron tries to weigh even the more abstract pluses and minuses. She makes a point of noting that e-reading is often disturbed by distractions available to us on our electronic devices -- especially internet-connected tablets -- and takes a closer look at claims of multi-tasking not diminishing the returns on our reading comprehension or pleasure (finding that only a very small part of the population is hardwired for multitasking, and that for most of us the losses -- in comprehension and speed -- far outweigh any perceived benefits).
       Most significant, however, for Baron is what we get out of reading, and she repeatedly notes that for any sort of long-form reading print remains far superior. From spatial memory of where on a page we read something to ability (and/or willingness) to concentrate on a text for an extended period of time, she suggests print beats digital hands down. Only the search-function, and portability (take as many tomes along as you want !), weigh strongly in digital's favor as far as long-form writing goes.
       She covers a great deal of territory and brings up many good points and arguments, considering what factors should be considered in any debate about reading and digital and/vs. print. Two aspects of the book, however, remain problematic. One is that she clearly comes into the debate entirely in the print camp. She's forthright about this, and seems willing to consider the arguments in favor of digital, as well as to recognize that potentially readers who grow up in a digital environment -- and it is debatable whether there are such readers yet, given how ubiquitous print is, despite stray examples of schools that have gone all-digital -- might see things very differently, but it still colors some her writing and argument. So, for example, she describes seeing the Codex Zouche-Nuttall in the original, after having been given a print-book version of it, and describes how superior the experience is to even digital renderings:

Yet however valuable these digital renderings are for the purpose of study, the originals are magical.

     Which comprehension findings should we trust ? Maybe all of them -- or none. The studies differ in subject age, reading material, testing methodology, and users' prior experience with reading onscreen, making comparison difficult. Another problem may be that comprehension materials were not sufficiently nuanced.

- M.A.Orthofer, 15 February 2015

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Links:

• Oxford University Press publicity page
• Q & A at The New Republic

• Book Chase
• Kirkus Reviews
• Publishers Weekly
• The Scotsman

• Faculty page

• See Index of Books on Books and Reading
• See Index of books about the Internet and Computers
• See Index of Literary Essays

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About the Author:

       Naomi S. Baron teaches at American University.

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