Naomi S. Baron is Professor of Linguistics and Executive Director of the Center for Teaching, Research and Learning at American University in Washington, D.C. In this enlightening tome, she explores the many ways in which digital technology is reshaping our understanding of what it means to read. Equally important is the question of what this change will mean for education, culture, environment, and our daily lives.

In 2012, more books were purchased online in the United States than from brick-and-mortar stores. A growing number of these were eBooks. Even colleges and libraries are backing away from print.

Interviewing students in the United States, Japan, and Germany, Baron discovered that 92% of college students said they could better concentrate when reading in print. While reading onscreen, they were three times as likely to be multitasking. Students admitted that for any kind of long-form reading, print beats digital hands down. But for shorter texts and skimming, college students preferred digital reading. In the same split, they favored print for school work and digital screens when reading for pleasure.

While eReaders loaded with eBooks are easier to carry around and often less costly, many students still preferred the look and tactile nature of books and even the smell of pages and bindings.

Baron covers a smorgasbord of other fascinating subjects including different categories of reading (skimming, scanning, reading extensively, and intensive reading), user-sourced reviews, the popularity of book clubs, and the social dimensions of reading. Then there's the comment "tl;dr." meaning "too long; didn't read." This is used whenever someone makes a post that is too long to bother reading.