What Are You Reading?

Abstract

Chapter 2 begins by considering the different genres of text, particularly narrative (typically fiction) versus informational. It goes on to compare trade sales for print, eBooks, and audio with what’s happening in education, where cost is a major driver towards adoption of commercial digital materials, along with open educational resources (OERs). We also introduce issues around testing and the ways readers move through digital text by paging or scrolling. The chapter then raises the critical question of how much our success in reading on a particular platform (print, screen, or audio) is shaped by the technology itself and how much by the mindset we bring to using it. The issue of technology versus mindset is explored in depth in later chapters.