Who Needs Books?: Reading in the Digital Age (2016) by Lynn Coady

But the utter mental absorption we experience when we read a written narrative, the way the world disappears around us and an entirely imaginary place springs to life in our consciousness, is unparalleled and impossible to replicate with any other medium. Reading is dreaming awake—Kurt Vonnegut called it the “western version of meditation.” The internet may give us immersion, and it may give us community, but what it can never give us is this experience of dreaming in tandem with an individual author’s imagination. Only books do that.

A succinct essay on the state of reading, books, and language in a digital age. This read provided a gentle re-connection to books and reading for enjoyment, after a prolonged period away from reading while focused on academic writing. I enjoyed the author’s simple premise—that books, and the language they are founded upon, may be in no worse condition—perhaps better—than in previous decades or centuries. Some insightful consideration is given for the value of the internet and the other media platforms that have been introduced into society over time.