I think one of the big changes we're seeing is that many younger people no longer read for pleasure in the sense that they curl up with a good book. My son who is an honor student thinks this concept is very strange even though he is a good reader, and will read for information. I teach college students, and I think most of them no longer read for pleasure in the way many of us may think of this.

I also think reading for pleasure is not necessarily a marker of good reading skills. People can have good literacy skills, but not use them to read for pleasure. However, if we reverse that it becomes obvious a person can't read for pleasure unless they have good reading skills.

I'm in the process of reading an interesting book called A History of Reading by S.R. Fischer. It, of course, begins with ancient cultures around the world, first using reading to keep track of accounts, and ends with a chapter (which I haven't gotten to yet) called "Reading the Future" which begins with a picture of a young woman reading her cell phone.

Terry Pruett-Said
ESL/English for Academic Purposes coordinator
Macomb Community College
Michigan
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