The Reading Gap
Over the past year it really began to bother me that as I spent more and more time trying to stay up-to-date with RSS feeds, tweets, emails, and other bite-sized pieces of content, this came at the expense of reading long-form content — and books in particular.
Sure I was still reading, but what I was reading was less substantive. Most of my reading was being done very quickly and in short bursts, and neither my life nor my reading habits were oriented to consume long-form content. I came to view this as a “reading gap”. Even though from one perspective I was reading more, I was really reading less.
That just didn’t sit right with me. I grew up in a family with an unwavering passion for reading, and we believed that you should always have “a book to read”, whether it be fiction or non-fiction.
I suppose the simple solution would have been to drive down to the local Barnes & Noble to stock up and get a couple books on my nightstand, or make a much overdue visit to the local library, but I did neither. Instead, I was intrigued enough with the promise of the Kindle to take the plunge. I wasn’t sure it would change my reading habits, but I gave it a try.
Now at just under a year with it, I have been reading more long-form content than I have in years, and it feels great. The Kindle re-ignited my love for books and opened my eyes to other great reading-related services such as Instapaper, Audible, and Goodreads.
You can really start to feel the emergence of something special happening in the world of reading. Books and technology are rapidly converging to create something special. It might be fueled by the Kindle, or the iPad, or another technology or service that doesn’t exist yet, but more likely it will be a combination of all of the above.
Whatever the technologies involved though, I believe it is going to empower a new surge in reading, and long-form content in particular, and it is going to be pretty exciting.
Here’s to closing the reading gap.
