Reading Matters

A History for the Digital Age

Joel Halldorf

• Publisher: NYU Press
• Year: 2026
• Print ISBN:
  9781479840731
• eBook ISBN:
  9781479840755
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: Literary Criticism History & Theory
• Index: Literature

Traces earlier revolutions in the history of reading to orient our shift to the digital age

Considered one of the greatest inventions of human civilization, writing has served as a pathway to culture and education through history. The digital revolution has ushered in a dramatic transformation, leading to growing concern over the effects and possible detriments of algorithms, information overload, and fake news. In Reading Matters, Joel Halldorf makes the case that in order to navigate the upheavals of the digital age, we must understand prior technical revolutions and the transformations they engendered. He shows how our ways of reading are inseparable from the media we use, and that the decline of deep, attentive reading may be the most serious consequence of our move from page to screen.

Originally published in Swedish in 2023, this newly revised volume presents a sweeping history of transformations in reading and writing, tracing precedents in the invention of writing, the shift from clay tablets to papyrus and from scrolls to codices, the advent of printing, and the development of industrial printing. It explores how each new format of writing has encouraged new ways to think, relate, and organize the world. Essentially, it is not only what we read that is important, but how we read.

Moving through key historical events including the rise of Christianity, the scientific revolution, and the development of democracy, Halldorf explores how changes in the physical book reflected major cultural and historical shifts of the time. By tracing how new media forms have impacted human attention, authority, and community, the volume equips readers to better understand our own digital habits today. Detailing the riveting cultural history of reading technologies, book revolutions, and cultural upheavals, Reading Matters showcases the massive power of reading, writing, and books in helping us understand who we are.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• Introduction: Medium and Message
• 1. Could Jesus Raise the Dead but Not Read Books? From Orality to Literacy
• 2. The First Revolution: From Sacred Scrolls to Convenient Codices
• 3. Classics and Culture: What Books Can Carry an Empire?
• 4. When Monks Saved Civilization: Reading for Transformation
• 5. The Silent Reader: From Indexes to Universities
• 6. The Gutenberg Galaxy: The World of the Printing Press
• 7. Awash in a Sea of Books: Coping with the Information Overload
• 8. Birth of the Nations: From Print Capitalism to Book Nationalism
• 9. The Industrial Book Revolution: From Steam Printing to Social Movements
• 10. Modern Gatekeepers: The Age of Publishers and Critics
• 11. The Crimes of the Typographic Man: From Enlightenment to Auschwitz
• 12. Readers in an Age of Distraction: From Gutenberg to Gates
• 13. Digital Ecosystems: From Editors to Algorithms
• 14. Why Books Matter: Reading and Resonance
• Acknowledgments
• Notes
• Bibliography
• Index
• About the Author