It’s worth recalling that mass literacy is only about 300 years old, so the modern culture of reading is about as recent as the United States, which is probably itself a consequence of mass literacy. Ironically, today it’s also probably leading the decline in mass literacy. Maybe book-reading will eventually become an anachronistic hobby, although even Thomas Jefferson made this prophecy too [1].
“Acoustic representations activated in silent reading are best characterized as inner speech rather than as abstract phonological codes.” [2]
Not sure. Since LLM's have their spot, I, personally, have been reading much more. And I was no slouch when it came to consuming written materials.
Sure, some of it is slop, some of it is pretty good. But I did read more.
delis-thumbs-7eSep 28, 2026, 6:42 AM
I have no idea, but with ADHD and all, I have taken recently the habit of reading aloud, especially course texts, doc’s and other boring stuff I easily get distracted with. I pretend to be a BBC 4 broadcaster. It seems to work. After awhile you can stop and just read silently.
21asdffdsa12Sep 28, 2026, 7:00 AM
Imagine how creepy a reader must seem to a ancient uneducated analphabet.
Guy looks down at artifact, eyes flicker, pages flipped- then looks up: "Now i know.."
xhevahirSep 28, 2026, 5:15 AM
There's been a lot of debate over the years about what exactly it was that Ambrose was doing differently, and whether silent reading was really so uncommon in antiquity.
RugnirVikingSep 28, 2026, 7:01 AM
Reckon you could give us some explanation of the other side? What are the alternative explanations proposed? The passage here seems pretty unequivocal
hizlikovboy27Sep 28, 2026, 5:26 AM
the Augustine passage is a fascinating piece of evidence, but i wonder how much we can infer from it about the wider reading habits of the ancient world.
rob74Sep 28, 2026, 6:06 AM
To get to that, we have to first think about the literacy rate in antiquity, which is estimated at 5 to 10%. And of those, most could probably read well enough to get by, but didn't routinely read longer texts. So someone who was well-enough versed in reading to not have to read the text out loud in order to understand it was probably a rare and noteworthy creature indeed...
BariumBlueSep 28, 2026, 6:40 AM
I would imagine most reading would be "let me read that sign" and not much else. To most folks, writing was probably logographs - "Ah, I've seen that collection of letters before, that meant 'pub' "
js8Sep 28, 2026, 6:12 AM
And you can't read long texts if there aren't that many to begin with. But it raises a question - why didn't China, which invented printing press earlier, didn't fare better?
monideasSep 28, 2026, 6:10 AM
“Now Hannah was praying in her heart; only her lips moved, but her voice could not be heard.”
“Acoustic representations activated in silent reading are best characterized as inner speech rather than as abstract phonological codes.” [2]
1. https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/2026/08/reading-crisis-...
2. https://link.springer.com/article/10.3758/BF03205520