Has the web killed the joy of reading a good book?

Reading a book and responding to online commentaries is quite different. Immersing yourself in a book and allowing your imagination to become a part of the story is unlike anything that I have ever experienced. Movies are great, websites, and video games are appealing to many. However, to me a good book is the highest form of entertainment. I guess that I am too old for the new world.

People have gotten soo lazy that they jusy buy adio books off of itunes. And who has time to sit down and really enjoy a book?

Working on the internet everyday I still love to read an actual book and find it refreshing to look at a book than a screen. Maybe it's because of my job, it probably is but i find reading on the computer a lot more draining than reading a book.

I agree that it has become the inspiration for my reading of actual books. The ammount of times a book has saved me from the mundane routine of communting lately has also increased.

The web is nothing BUT reading! And beside, the city once voted most literate is also home to the microsoft creator.

Really? I still read a book every day, on my way to and from work and sometimes before bed. I love reading just as much as I love the internet, and they definitely don't compete for my time. And if no one reads anymore, how on earth did Amazon.com become so popular? ;)

hmmm, well, i must say, i do go on the internet, but only for little stuff, i dont spend my days on here, its usually the internet for a certain reason, im on then im off...and i enjoy reading, nothing gives me more sastifaction then to read a book that opens your mind to so much other sanarios to ppl's lives and sitatuion. but....maybe thats just me.

Book addiction is a pretty simple cultivation. It's as easy to panic because you don't have your book, or just finished one and don't have a decent new one yet, as it is to freak because you forgot your cell phone at home (not that anybody ever does that).

I still read all the time. Besides, there are online books now, plus i havent seen amazon sink yet so people must be reading.

I havent read a book since little school.... until recently. Since reading so much on the interweb, it has prompted many purchases of factual books that I am working my way through.

The Web was my inspiriation to start reading books, and I am enjoying it :)

I think the recent episode of Doctor Who at the universe library proves that printed books will never go out of style.

As long as they keep printing zombie novels I will keep buying them.

In bulk.

It hasn't killed it for me. Despite the hours I spend daily on the web, I still read books - especially at night when I go to bed. I'm a fast reader, I go through books in no time.

I like reading books. I like turning pages.

I like watching movies.

Both of these things I dislike doing online. It's not the same nor is it fun.

Studying English literature we have read quite a few texts online, but it just doesn't beat sitting down to a book. I guess it's more a problem of 'making offline time' for reading...

I do find it hard to find a good book to read that is worth the effort though

It hasn't affected my reading. In fact, I find it's a great tool for researching new books to read. And while I like the fact that you can read some great works online for free (nice selection of classic economics e-books/pdfs at mises.org) I'm totally with rwylie. It's not the same experience as reading a real book.

I stoppped reading for a while when I was driving to work. Then I read free papers on the tube. Now I'm back to books. I read one a week. BUt I find it hard to find a good book; maybe I've read so many...it seems anyone can get one published and therefore it;s a bit of roulette each time in a bookshop...

Yeh, even the smallest laptop will never be optimised for the reading experience because they have many other purposes. It's also good to have the whole story set out before you in a book, whereas you'd have to rely on refreshing a webpage to get to the end of your book.

Also you can't get wireless in a lot places; you can take a book anywhere.

Exactly, I think its something about the rapid refresh of the screen, your eyes get tired. Holding a physical book where the words of the writer can feel real makes the magic...and no ad banners! And, you can bookmark and stop whenever you want. I dont care how light computers become, the reassuring weight of a book is always the best feeling when you have a long train journey or wait in a doctor's surgery to endure!

There's an experience you get reading a book that you can't get from text on a screen; it's something about seeing the printed words, turning the pages, and 'getting through' the book, from cover to cover. It's a singular experience in that you take it in completely when you're reading, but can put it down and come back to it as much as you want.

I've tried reading Orwell's 1984 free online, and for me it lost much of it's magic. I think it's to do with looking at a screen; our eyes get tired in a way they don't when reading a book. Also the distracting ad banners don't help at all.

There is a fundamentally different enjoyment that some gets from reading a book or reading something on the internet. So long as someone is searching for that type of experience, they will read a book. Reading anything these days is important. Some European countries and America of course are experiencing a rising level of iliteracy rates, so people, just read!

I don't agree, I've always been a big reader and still am, I've always got a book on the go.

I agree you can get more info from the web and much quicker as well but I don't spend all my time surfing, I prefer to read my books.

Personally, I haven't exhausted the "classics" library just yet, but I'm not a fan of modern work. If anything, I go for non-fiction. I've seen this trend in others, but they tend to go for the "Zombie Survival Guide"...

When did a 'culture of reading' ever exist? To me, morning its loss is just a sign of nostalgic technophobia. I don't think the internet is going to stop anyone who wants to read a book from doing so. And for those who have no interest in books, if anything, the internet will increase their exposure to written language.

What happened to the culture reading books??

It's fading away just like the percentages of youth graduating high school. In Memphis, we have some high schools where only 44% of the senior class actually graduates. 44%!! Screw this no child left behind bullshit. Its more like no child of a W.A.S.P. left behind.

Enhanced actually. Read this, it's a free (and legal) download.
http://craphound.com/littlebrother/download/
Our generation's 1984.

I wish that I could say that I don't read a lot anymore- but I'm a history major so..... nothing but reading. I don't think there were ever really all that many voracious readers to begin with.

As long as people are reading, i don't care what it is, the internets, books, magazines whatever as long as you inform yourself and exercise your thinking skills.