[georgeoliver]

Certainly many books today are over-written, but I also wonder if the general reader today is less adept at reading. Skills like memorization and a person's depth and breadth of knowledge all play a part in what you get out of reading and I feel like one could make the case that the average educated reader 100 years ago was better at these things than people today.

[hypefi]

Reading is like swimming or running. Everybody can do it, but levels of skills differ.