Changes

Jonah Lehrer’s essay, “The Future of Reading” talks about how technology is making books more obsolete. His love for books clearly show throughout his blog post as he writes about how new technologies such as Kindle and Nook are becoming a new found phenomenal. Lehrer feels that it’s easier to read digital texts and e-readers because of the single direction that it moves in. He rather sees digital texts and e-readers change the font or color scheme of the text therefore the reader can actually think about what their reading and not just ‘scan’ over the words. 

One quote from Grant-Davie’s reading that relates to this article, is “Teaching student writers and readers to ask the same questions, and to understand why they are asking them, will help them realize their options, choose rhetorical strategies and stances for good reasons, and begin to understand each other’s roles”. Throughout Lehler’s reading the question that remained was, “Will books be forgotten due to technology?”  He used this rhetorical strategy to effectively get his opinion across and form this blog.

While reading Lehrer’s essay I identified Bazerman’s fourth concept on how the texts may rely on beliefs, issues, ideas, or statements generally circulated to the reader and his fifth concept on how text may rely on the uses of language to get point across. For example, he writes, “I’m sure we’ll always have deckle-edge hardcovers and mass market paperbacks, but I imagine the physical version of books will soon assume a cultural place analogous to that of FM radio.” He compares his love of books to FM radio, about how both are quickly being forgotten about.

I agree with Lehrer but I am a woman of technology. I often find myself ordering books from iBookstore but that doesn’t mean that I will stop buying paperback or hardback books. Books aren’t used as much but I believe they will never go extinct. Some people love to have the actual book in their hand while turning the page while others rather tap on their Kindle, Nook, or iPad to proceed to the next chapter. It’s just really the person’s preference.