How You Read Not as Important as Will You Read?

Something to keep in mind in this whole e-book versus physical book debate...

--James H. Billington, Librarian of Congress

In a Newsweek poll of "some literary brains on the future of reading," James Billington had these comments to make:

"The new immigrants don't shoot the old inhabitants when they come in. One technology tends to supplement rather than supplant. How you read is not as important as: will you read? And will you read something that's a book--the sustained train of thought of one person speaking to another? Search techniques are embedded in e-books that invite people to dabble rather than follow a full train of thought. This is part of a general cultural problem."