Aliteracy - something that doesn't apply to any of us...

[heidit at netbox.com]

There's an interesting article in the Washington Post today at 
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A23370-2001May13.html 
about people who can read, but choose not to. 
Part of the article describes the two ways that people read:
Efferent, which comes from the Latin word efferre (meaning to carry 
away), is purposeful reading, the kind students are taught day after 
day in schools. Efferent readers connect cognitively with the words 
and plan to take something useful from it -- such as answers for a 
test.
Aesthetic is reading for the sheer bliss of it, as when you dive deep 
into Dostoevski or get lost in Louisa May Alcott. Aesthetic readers 
connect emotionally to the story. 


I read efferently all day at work - I read aesthetically in gasps at 
work, and whenever I can outside the office - and I know many of you 
do to.

And I know the members of Nitpickers Anonymous will love the end of 
the article:
But how do you get through grad school without reading? Spreitzer [a 
runner who intends to be a teacher] is asked.

He gives an example. One of his required texts is the recently 
published "Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American 
Community" by Robert Putnam. In the book, Putnam argues, among other 
things, that television has fragmented our society.

Spreitzer thumbed through the book, dipped into a few chapters and 
spent a while "skipping around" here and there.

He feels, however, that he understands Putnam and Putnam's theories 
as well as if he had read the book. 

How is that? he is asked.

Putnam, he explains, has been on TV a lot. "He's on the news all the 
time," Spreitzer says. "On MSNBC and other places. Those interviews 
with him are more invaluable than anything else."