Reading Response 7 on Price’s “Reading as is For Life”

Reading Response 7

Summary: Price’s article “Reading as if For Life” is about the shift from print to digital and the seemingly eminent death of reading, but it focuses on more than just the book. She suggests that the book is not dying and that reading is still prevalent, but through other media forms such as advertising, internet, and even the print of clothes.

Interesting Points:

1. “Digital media aren’t replacing the book; they’re replacing the file, the directory, the calendar, the form.” Pg. 485.

This quote explains that digital media are only media for information, specifically text. The book will still be prevalent because it is not being actively replaced digital media. This seems to coincide with the notion of media being rivals that we discussed last week.

2. “If a novel reprinted on the Kindle counts as ‘reading,’ why not text that was born digital—or even paratext or metadata?” pg. 488.

This excerpt shows that there are more forms of reading than just books. People who believe that reading is becoming a thing of the past do not take into account the reading that is done on websites such as Youtube, Facebook, Twitter, etc. If this is considered as reading, it is obvious that reading is just as prevalent as ever, maybe even more so.

3. “For Bradbury, however, the allusion allows the novel not to be superseded by TV, but rather or incorporate it. Same content, different medium.” Pg. 492.

This excerpt also touches on what we discussed last class about convergence and complementarity. Books will not be replaced, they will work with other media to improve themselves as a medium just as the other media will work with the book to improve as well.

Confusing Points:

1. “You can’t take a chained folio to the beach, any more than you would want to read a telephone book by the pool.” Pg. 486.

This excerpt was confusing because I do not see how these two objects are similar. Overall, this statement just doesn’t make sense to me. The comparison of being unable to take the folio and the free will to not read the phonebook just don’t seem to help Price’s argument in my opinion.

2. “Once reading was imagined as a drain on productivity; today, vocational reading has become invisible because it deviates from our need for the esthetic to embody purposiveness without a purpose.” Pg. 487.

I don’t understand this excerpt because she initially says that reading used to be counterproductive and is now seen as basically the same thing. This is confusing because I don’t see how reading is counterproductive in society when it is how most communication is used today.

Discussion Question:

Why is reading digital text like social media or other websites not considered reading in the same sense of reading a book or an article?