Our reading habits have declined drastically. Forty
years ago a writer could expect the average reader
to comprehend the classics; now many readers cannot
even comprehend a popular, clear writer like C.S.
Lewis. In twenty-nine years of college teaching,
I have seen reading ability go steadily down. A
paper I would give a "C" to today, I would have
given an "F" to twenty-five years ago.
Why? Because you need inner and outer silence to
read well. Silence is the atmosphere words breathe.
Not only is silence hard to find, but people don't
even want it anymore. They actually prefer to read
to background music, deadening the silent part of
the mind that alone can penetrate more deeply than
the words.
Peter Kreeft
