It is not reading itself but what you read. Like much else we do - what we read is highly fragmented.  Much like in meals - we are substituting regular meals for snacks and appetizers. A quick bite of Facebook posts or a soundbite on Twitter is far more attractive than a rambling New Yorker article or, God forbid, a real book-sized book.  And yet, long books are in and blogs and articles in the "longform" flourish.

We've finally made reading an "extreme sport". 

(The photo above is from Week #289 of the 300-week photo project. A typical indoor shot taken using a Canon 5D M3, Sigma 50mm lens shot at f/1.8, 1/100 with help from an external flash.)