[Arrath]

> I was curious how one gamifies the printed page, and it turns out this article isn't so much about books as it is social media.

I've a little exposure to gamified reading: Last year my girlfriend got sucked in to some reading app (from an ad on fb or ig), the gist being that it serves up chapters of (apparently) never ending romance novels, specifically crafted to drag the reader in and end each chapter on cliffhangers of one form or another to entice them to get the next chapter and continue. Naturally, it functions on in-app currency and gives you a certain number of tokens up front before you have to start paying in. And yes, she shoveled a good amount of money into it to gobble down chapter after chapter.

[esafak]

A good reminder that reading is not good per se; you could be reading junk.

[bcbrown]

You can read for enjoyment and you can read for self-improvement; either is fine by me as long as you aren't deceiving yourself. Imbuing a recreational activity with moral heft can devalue both recreation and morality, and I think that's one component of the tension the author of the article is wrestling with.

[esafak]

You can learn to enjoy more challenging material. Self-improvement and enjoyment are not in opposition.