The Dreams of Readers

What happens to us when we read? Nicholas Carr offers some provocative thoughts in "The Dreams of Readers." I don't always see eye to eye with Carr, but I found this post to be thought provoking and well worth a look.

Excerpt:
"Books 'often live a vibrant life offline,' grants a Google executive, but they will be able to 'live an even more exciting life online.' Such views reflect more than just technological enthusiasm. Something deeper is going on. Society is growing ever more skeptical of the value of solitude. The status quo treats with suspicion even the briefest of withdrawals into inactivity and apparent purposelessness. We see it in the redefinition of receptive states of mind as passive states of mind. We see it in an education system that seems uncomfortable with any 'outcome' unsuited to formal measurement. We see it in the self-contempt of the humanities. We see it in the glorification of the collaborative team and the devaluation of the self-reliant individual. We see it in the general desire to make all experience interactive and transactional."